Donard fire started deliberately

An overnight fire on Northern Ireland's highest mountain was started deliberately, the fire service says.

An Irish Coast Guard helicopter and an RAF helicopter had to help firefighters monitor the gorse fire on Slieve Donard, County Down.

Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Commander Area Commander Jim McCallum said that they believed the gorse fire had been started deliberately.

"We had three crews during the night mostly to monitor the fire," he said.

"We are extremely reluctant to commit crews during the night-time essentially due to the danger of personnel falling into a gully or getting trapped by the fire."

He said that they would have moved in only if there had been a threat to property.

A/C McCallum said that because it had been such a visible fire their control room had been inundated with calls.

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