Mourne Mountain fires: A community's devastation

A firefighter pauses for a moment as she gets on with the battle to put out the blaze

It began with puffs of white smoke, but by Friday teatime the people who call the foothills of the Mourne Mountains home began to feel nervous.

As darkness fell, like thousands of others, Laura Devlin and her family stood at a bedroom window watching orange flames devour the night sky.

"My son who's five said: 'Mummy, it looks like a volcano.'"

Ms Devlin is a Mournes woman, born and bred. For people like her, the mountains are more than a pretty watercolour in a tourist shop.

There is a pride and a sense of ownership - there is that feeling of solid community.

"To see our beautiful Mournes burning was heartbreaking and devastating," she said.

As a local woman with a young family, she was deeply concerned - but as chairwoman of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. she was also responsible for helping to deal with what was happening.

The weekend turned into a frantic flurry of calls and meetings with the emergency services and the agencies which work in the Mournes - confirming that yes, it was a major incident, but at that stage there was no imminent threat to those living in the mountains' shadows.

By Sunday, the operation was scaled back after significant progress was made to control the fire.

Laura Devlin said watching the fire in the mountains was devastating

In a crisis, a community forges its bonds.

"People sent burgers, sandwiches, hot meals, drink - they sent all this for free up the mountains for the firefighters and emergency crews.

"You would not believe the generosity of the business community," the SDLP councillor said.

Nichola Thomson believes it.

As a mother she, too, watched her children's anguish as they stared for hours at the yellow flames licking the mountains.

Nichola Thomson's son, Charlie, wanted more than anything to help the firefighters

Charlie is 12 and has learning difficulties. Erin is 10 years old. They sat on the landing of their home staring out at the fire lighting up the mountains.

"At one stage, it looked as if the flames were hitting the tree line in Donard Park. The children were worried they would have to be evacuated like in war time," she said.

"During the night, Erin ended up in my bed and Charlie was up and down all night."

Charlie is passionate about the emergency services so he felt for the crews out all night on the mountains, tackling the blaze.

"In the morning, he said: 'We have to do something to help those fire fighters - bring them up water and buns and stuff'."

So Nichola put up a crowdfunding page.

Nichola Thomson's children, Charlie, 12, and Erin, 10, were anxious about the blaze

"I was totally overwhelmed," she said, after watching the donations clock up and up.

"But that is just Newcastle... everybody pulls together."

On Saturday she packed the car and brought water, fruit and vegetables, scones and sausage rolls to the crews.

On Sunday she drove up with ice cream.

With her crowdfunding page, she aimed to make £1,500. By lunchtime on Sunday, she had more than doubled that figure to £4,000.

• Over 100 firefighters at Mournes 'major incident'

The extra money will be donated to the NI Fire and Rescue Service.

Charlie reached out and a whole community reached back.

NI Fire and Rescue Service Area Commander Mark Smyth thanked Charlie when he met him on Monday and said he was "very humbled" by his efforts.

"Everybody keeps telling us how much we are heroes up in the fires and yes our firefighters were heroes," he said.

"But even heroes need heroes and that's where Charlie comes in.

"I mean it is just incredible.

"He really is our hero and he is absolutely fantastic."

Firefighters worked in challenging conditions on the mountainside in County Down

Andy Hall, secretary of Tollymore Football Club, watched the blaze too.

"It was unreal, I could look out of our window and see a ring of fire," he said.

Saturday was to have been a red letter day for Tollymore Utd. They were meant to be playing Warrenpoint up on the Newcastle pitch.

"We have been locked down since Christmas. There were 30 guys champing at the bit to get out there and play. You couldn't have planned it worse," he said.

"We're not complaining - but the helicopter came in and we had to clear the pitch a couple of times."

Fires in the Mournes are a regular occurrence, he said.

Harry Thompson watched the fire begin from his home near Bloody Bridge

"It has an impact here. There are tour guides who missed out on wages this weekend after a long lockdown.

"In terms of the wildlife, it's nesting season and there are birds who won't leave their eggs.

"There are hare and wild deer, red kites and raptors up there."

In the early hours of Friday, student Harry Thompson who lives with his family close to Bloody Bridge, spotted the yellow flames.

Harry Thompson took this photograph of the fire on the mountains close to his home near Bloody Bridge

"Overnight it got a lot worse, it was quite high up on the mountain. By 05:00 BST, the Millstone Mountain was on fire - almost a third of it was alight."

The smell of the smoke drifted on the breeze through the town of Newcastle all weekend.

On a sunny weekend, you might expect an invasion of tourists. Here was a new kind of quarantine.

There were fears that the fire could pose a threat to people like Harry and his family who live, work and play in the shadow of the mountains.

"Thankfully for us, the fire stayed high up in the mountains," he said.

"But what must it have done to the wildlife.. all the wild flowers? I like to go up there mountain biking and I've spotted wild horses up in the mountains.

"Also it's nesting time for the birds.. it would cause such a lot of devastation."

And now that the blaze is back under control, there are questions to be asked.

"You can see the scorching on the mountains.. they are pure black from being burned," he said.

A helicopter assisting with emergency operations on Sunday morning

There are so many agencies involved with the mountains, she said. Now Ms Devlin wants a plan - a way forward to protect the landscape and habitat.

"When I was wee, there never seemed to be fires in the Mournes. It just seems more common in the past number of years. Is it climate change? Is it that far more people are visiting the Mournes?

"Was this malicious?"

"It just seems recently they are happening all too often and our beautiful landscape will be destroyed forever . We need to do something urgently."