Firefighters extinguish gorse fire near Donemana

A large plume of smoke could be seen on the main Londonderry to Belfast road

Firefighters have put out a gorse fire on a mountain bordering counties Londonderry and Tyrone.

The fire service was called to the blaze at Slievekirk near Donemana at around 00:20 BST on Wednesday.

Nine fire appliances and crews from Derry, Maghera, Ballymoney, Dungiven and Ballycastle attended the scene of the fire which covered one hectare of gorse.

The incident was declared over at 10:55 BST, the Northern Ireland Fire Service (NIFRS) said.

"Firefighters used five beaters and two knapsack sprayers to extinguish the fire. The cause of the fire is believed to have been deliberate ignition," the NIFRS said.

Last month NIFRS western area commander David Doherty said crews had been pushed to their "absolute limits" by a series of wildfires

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle NIFRS Western area commander David Doherty said there had been reports of "numerous fires in the area" late on Tuesday.

The fire service, he added, believe someone "was driving around lighting fires in the area".

"This one (Slievekirk) was more well developed. It was quite a resource intensive fire in very heavy gorse land," he said.

He said crews were able to mitigate the risk to a farmhouse close to the scene of the Slievekirk fire.

"When we take fire engines out of our fire stations in the towns to go to these rural areas we have to reinforce those stations with other crews to ensure we can still go to the house fires, the road traffic collisions, the water rescues, all the things we do 365 days a year," he said.

It is the latest in a series of wildfires across Northern Ireland.

On Tuesday Environment Minister Andrew Muir told the Northern Ireland Assembly that it is "only by the grace of God that nobody has been killed" by the recent spate of fires.

Crews tackled more than 70 fires over one weekend in April across Northern Ireland.

"We need a different attitude to the wildfires, which are having a devastating impact on our countryside," Muir said

He added: "It is very distressing to see the damage that we have caused to our countryside."

Speaking last month, NIFRS commander Doherty said the majority of the wildfires had been started deliberately and appealed to the public to report anyone starting fires.

He warned the fire service had been pushed to "its absolute limits" by the number of wildfires across Northern Ireland.