A bill for over €6,000 has been issued to the owners of a restaurant in Ballydehob after emergency services were called to extinguish a gorse fire in the area.
At the start of last month Leo Bolger who owns Bally Bia restaurant fought the fire with his son and a few of his neighbours for a number of hours before the fire service managed to stop it in it's tracks the following morning a couple of hundred yards from his boundary.
Schull and Bantry fire services were called to extinguish the gorse fires that were raging in the Durrus and Bantry areas and the bill for their services was subsequently issued to Leo.
This is not the first instance of large bills being issued by the Council - a man in Sheep's Head who called in a fire was issued an invoice for over €2,000 while a woman in Goleen was issued with a similar bill which was subsequently cleared once she queried it.
The high bills are leading to concerns that people may be put off alerting the fire service about gorse fires in the future.
Speaking to RedFM News Leo Bolger of Bally Bia restaurant says he intends to fight the bill and has already issued a query to the Council about it.
"I couldn't believe it when I opened the envelope. I thought it was something else.
"But on reflection, I guess somebody rang them and said it was heading towards my land and give my name. And I presumed that that's how my name ended up on the bill.
"But, yeah, look, I didn't phone them, I didn't start to fire. And it wasn't on my land. So I don't know, where do you go from there.
"To be honest, I won't be paying it, it's as simple as that.
"I've written to the council. I rang them last week and they said put it in writing and send it in and they will investigate. So I did that over the weekend. So I'm hoping I'll hear from them fairly quickly on the on the matter and that'd be the end of it, I hope."
