Bloody Bridge wildfire contained as firefighters deal with others

More than 75 firefighters battled the blaze at Bloody Bridge in County Down

Firefighters have dealt with the wildfire on Bloody Bridge in the Mourne Mountains after bringing in extra firefighters to tackle the two mile long fire front.

Sixteen firefighters are currently at the scene of a wildfire at Slieve Bearnagh near Bloody Bridge, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said.

The NIFRS are appealing to the public to avoid the Slieve Bearnagh area and avoid hillwalking nearby.

Firefighters are still dealing with a fire at Trassey Track - also near Newcastle in County Down - and has urged people in the area to keep their windows and doors closed.

A gorse fire in Ballygawley is being dealt with by firefighters with air support from the PSNI

More than 75 firefighters were involved in the Bloody Bridge wildfire and the fire remains under investigation, the NIFRS added.

Meanwhile a gorse fire in the White Bridge Area of Ballygawley is still being dealt with.

A gorse fire reported on Divis and Black Mountain in Belfast on Tuesday evening has been extinguished.

Twenty-six firefighters tackled the blaze on the west Belfast mountain.

The PSNI have said due to that gorse fire, the Millix road is closed at its junction with the Whitebridge Road and have asked the public to avoid the area.

A conservationist said the environmental impact of recent fires on the Mourne Mountains would be seen for decades.

Firefighters are dealing with a gorse fire on Divis Mountain in Belfast

Vincent McAlinden, who lives and works in the area, said the fires escalated to a "catastrophic devastation".

A major incident was declared at the weekend when a large wildfire broke out near the Mourne Mountains, leading to homes being evacuated.

That blaze is being treated as arson. There have been 147 fires across the mountains since Thursday night.

On Monday night more than 60 officers attended several blazes in the Mourne Mountains - including the Bloody Bridge fire front near Newcastle stretching 1.5km (0.9 miles).

The NIFRS said it received 240 calls on Monday.

It sent crews to 148 of these, of which 27 were wildfires.

Wildfires have ravaged the landscape of the Mournes, including the Sandbank Road which cuts through the mountains

Among them were fires at Sawel Mountain near Newtownstewart, Carncullagh Road in Dervock, and another at Silent Valley near Kilkeel.

These have now been dealt with.

Northern Ireland Water said the Silent Valley Dam and Ben Crom Reservoir had both reopened to the public.

It said fencing and signage had been put up to prevent unauthorised access to certain areas and some of the nature trails remained closed.

Environmental impact

"Inside the beating heart of the Mournes is in really, really bad shape," Mr McAlinden told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

Explaining the environmental impact of the wildfires, he said: "It's basically the utter incineration of the living skin that provides all the public good that we benefit from.

"Spring is supposed to be a time of renewal, things emerge, buds burst, birds sing - that's all gone, it's dead.

"Some animals would have been able to move in front of the fire but most won't and certainly anything that's young or anything that's been in hibernation or small is now just dead."

There will be a lot of charcoal left once the fires are extinguished too.

Mr McAlinden added that "the wind has abetted but when it picks up again it will just blow all that charcoal away and back into the streams, back into the air".

Fire started 'deliberately'

NIFRS western area commander David Doherty said the Sawel Mountain fire, in the Sperrins, was started deliberately.

He said up to 40 firefighters were involved in a very difficult operation to bring the fire under control, taking them half an hour or more to even reach the scene.

"This was a very difficult operation because it's all off the roads," he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme.

"Our personnel have to make their way on foot, so it's maybe a 30- to 40-minute walk before we can even get to the fire.

"There's no possibility of getting water to it, it's a matter of beating this fire out so it's very arduous and very punishing on our firefighters."

NIFRS area commander David Harbinson said a fire in Sandbank Road in County Down was "one of the most significant wildfires" he had witnessed in 25 years.

Yellow wildfire warning

A national hazards management yellow wildfire warning remains in place across Northern Ireland.

Responding to an urgent question in the NI Assembly on Monday, Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Andrew Muir described the wildfires in the Mourne Mountains as "rural arson".

Muir, who visited the area on Monday evening, said the unfolding situation was "really concerning".

Andrew Muir was in the area on Monday

Muir said a strategic wildfire group was established following the 2021 fire, which identified a need for a wildfire management plan for a number of areas, including the Mournes.

"We went to tender on that in the beginning of this year and unfortunately we didn't get any successful responses - that perhaps demonstrates this is an issue beyond Northern Ireland," he said.

Where are the Mourne Mountains?

The Mourne Mountains are located in County Down and are designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

A compact range, they include Northern Ireland's highest peak, Slieve Donard, and a dozen or so other major summits.

Large tracts are held in public ownership, but significant sections are privately-owned farmland.

Northern Ireland Water is one of the biggest landowners in the mountains and purchased 9,000 acres in the 1900s to secure a supply of drinking water for the growing city of Belfast.

The National Trust is another significant landowner.