'No consequences' for those causing wildfires, says rescue operator

The challenge with recurring wildfires is that "there are no consequences" for those responsible, a Mourne Mountain Rescue team co-ordinator has said.

Martin McMullan said the fires in the mountains at the weekend "definitely didn't look like they started from a recreational source".

Fires had broken out at the Slievenaman Road and the Ballagh Road in Newcastle, and the Sandbank Road in Hilltown.

"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.

At one point more than 50 firefighters dealt with the blaze on the Slievenaman Road.

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.

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.

A new wildfire action plan, external, published by the Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs (Daera) earlier in April set out a coordinated response to what officials describe as a growing threat.

It includes dozens of measures aimed at improving resilience and reducing the frequency and severity of fires.