Dry weather resulted in a spate of wildfires in counties Cork, Kerry, Galway, Tipperary, Laois, Wexford and Carlow last weekend.

The fires followed a fire risk warning from the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture as temperatures rose.

Six fire brigades in the west Cork region recorded 12 call-outs to wildfires in the first 10 days of April, according to Finbarr McNulty of the Cork fire service. Three of the fires threatened forestry plantations, while a fourth blocked a public road with thick black smoke. Brigades in the same region were called to 23 individual fires in March, making a total of 35 fires occurring in the closed season for deliberate burning of vegetation.

Teagasc issued a status orange forest fire warning valid until 18 April.

On Friday, Schull fire brigade tackled a blaze on Mount Gabriel, while in Co Laois a wildfire near Mountrath was extinguished using beaters. In Tipperary, fire brigades were on duty dealing with fires on the Galtee mountains.

Fire brigades were also called into action in Barna, Co Galway, last weekend where a large area of gorse and dry grasses was burned, fanned by light winds.

Galway fire fighters also tackled multiple fires in Loughrea, Clifden, Costello in Connemara, Tuam, Gort and Baile na hAbhann the previous weekend. Dublin Fire Brigade tended to fires in the Dublin Mountains on Monday.

The Irish Wildlife Trust had four separate fires reported to it in the Blackstairs mountains on the border of Wexford and Carlow. Of the 32 fires it has recorded in the 2017 closed period for burning, some 16 were in protected areas such as National Heritage Areas (NHAs), Special Areas of Conservations (SACs) or Special Protection Areas (SPAs).