Fires break out at roof protest jail

Fires broke out tonight at a maximum security prison in Northern Ireland which had been targeted by a recent prisoners’ rooftop protest.

Fire crews dealt with the blazes at Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim, which houses some of the province’s most notorious criminals and terrorists.

No-one was injured after the small fires, in a dining room and one of the wings, were extinguished, a Prison Service spokesman said.

Tonight’s incident came exactly a week after a rooftop protest by inmates over conditions at the jail near Lisburn, and just days after republicans stormed the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Service.

Finlay Spratt of the Prison Officers Association said he had no doubt the fires were connected to a campaign for segregation by republican and loyalist prisoners.

“It’s another push, no doubt to do with segregation just as the protest at the Northern Ireland Office this week has been,” he said.

“And it seems to be a very lackadaisical attitude adopted by the management of the Northern Ireland Prison Service who don’t seem to think that these things are going to happen.

“But we’ve predicted this and it’s going to continue, we have no doubt.” Eight prisoners staged an overnight rooftop protest at the jail over cell conditions last Friday night.

Prison authorities managed to get the inmates down from the roof after a day of intense negotiations.

Northern Ireland Prison Service Director General Peter Russell ordered a major security review in the wake of the protest, which involved loyalists and republicans.

The inmates at Maghaberry claimed they staged their protest over overcrowding.

Among those held at the high-security complex are feared loyalist terror boss Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair – and some of his most powerful enemies within the feuding Ulster Defence Association.