Around 100 Firefighters Battling Mourne Mountains Wildfires

Firefighting operations in the Mourne Mountains are expected to "continue across the week", the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) have said. Firefighters continue to tackle wildfires in the Ballagh Road, Newcastle, and Sandbank Road, Hilltown, areas of the mountains. There have been about 95 firefighters in attendance at both incidents. The fire service have reiterated their appeal for the public to avoid these areas. It added that firefighters responded to a number of other smaller wildfires in Belfast, Armagh, Lurgan and Rathfriland. "As the weather warning for wildfires remains in place, NIFRS is reminding the public to stay vigilant to the risk of fire in the countryside. If you see a fire, call 999 immediately." Stormont's Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir said the impact of the wildfires "is real and significant, with lives potentially at risk, communities in fear and natural habitats destroyed". Muir added that "rural arson is a crime" and that if anyone has any "information on those deliberately lighting malicious fires in our countryside" they should contact the police. Earlier on Monday, a Mourne Mountain Rescue team co-ordinator said the challenge with recurring wildfires is that "there are no consequences" for those responsible. Martin McMullan said the fires in the mountains at the weekend "definitely didn't look like they started from a recreational source". "The areas where they started were almost inaccessible to the general public. This happens year after year... and there's no consequences for those that are undertaking these actions," McMullan said. Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, McMullan said, from his point of view on Monday morning in Newcastle, the wildfires on the eastern side of the Mournes seemed to have "died down". "But that's not to say the fires in the western Mournes aren't still smouldering," he said. "Fires like that at this time of the year can continue to burn for quite a period of time. They don't just burn on the surface, they also burn into the ground. So it's quite unpredictable in that sense." McMullan said the fires at the weekend "spread quite quickly with a certain level of ferocity" due to there not being any significant fires in that particular area - so there was a lot of gorse and heather. "The big risk was that they spread, one of them in particular spread down towards properties along the Coast Road and then in towards Donard Forest in Newcastle." He said that one of the caravan parks had to be evacuated while people were asked to avoid the area. PSNI Local South Down Neighbourhood Inspector Paddy Heatley said deliberately setting a wildfire is a criminal offence for which you can face prosecution. "Where it is found that a wildfire has been maliciously started, it will be fully investigated by police, and when identified those responsible can expect to be arrested and brought before court," he said. "At this time, it is not possible to ascribe a definitive cause to individual fires which broke out over the weekend given the complexity of the fires and of the emergency service response operation. Police will however gather all available evidence to enable us to identify any action which would constitute a crime, and hold those responsible legally to account." Forever Mournes, a partnership aimed at protecting and restoring the mountains, said it was deeply concerned. "Fires can destroy vast areas of the mountain, leaving visible scars and disrupting the delicate balance of nature," it said in a statement. "However, the impact on wildlife is immediate and long-term. Evidence from previous fires shows that even years later, biodiversity can remain significantly reduced, with dramatic declines in insect populations that are vital to the wider ecosystem."