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Farmers rallied to the rescue of a sculpture made of five round bales of straw and eight square bales of hay after it went on fire in the small hours of Tuesday. The giant teddy bear, known as Kilflynn Ted, marks the Co Kerry town's Enchanted Fairy Festival taking place this coming weekend.
"We got an initial tip-off around 1am that the two straw bales figuring his legs were on fire," festival chair Mick Brady told the Irish Farmers Journal. Mick took part in efforts to douse the blaze and Ted looked OK at first, but the fire was lingering inside the structure and resumed later, triggering intervention by emergency services.
All that was left at was a pile of ashes
"All that was left at 8am was a pile of ashes," Mick said. A farmer and county chair of the ICSA, he quickly put his address book into motion: "A guy with a digger had it cleared in an hour," he said. "Then I got a few phone calls from farmers and guys who offered machinery. We collected the bales and by 10pm he was back."
The official version reported by the festival is that Ted got into an accident with a magical dragon and burned his dungarees, but has now received medical attention and fire training and became qualified as Fireman Ted.
Gardaí are investigating the incident. Although Mick does not know the cause of the fire, he suspects it may not be accidental. "Someone did something very stupid, but after seeing the support we got in the past few days, I hope they won't be too quick to do it again," he said. Ted's new version includes a hose, just in case.
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