Beauty spot blaze may have been arson

A fire which ravaged a beauty spot may have been started deliberately.

The blaze at Slieve Gullion mountain in south Armagh damaged an area equivalent to three football pitches and the fire service believes it may have been arson.

Crew from across the country battled with the massive fire in the mountainside forest for hours yesterday.

Jim McCallum from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said: “There are suspicions that the fire may have been started deliberately. The fire started very suddenly and we have our suspicions.”

He said Forestry Service officials had visited the area at around midday and found no sign of a blaze, then returned to the scene 15 minutes later to be confronted by substantial flames.

Up to 100 crew members were on the mountain near Meigh where a young tree plantation was burning.

A total of 17 appliances were brought in to control flames as they spread across an area of 200,000 sq metres.

A police helicopter was used to identify the centre of the fire.

At one stage there were two fire fronts.

Mr McCallum added: “The fire spread into the forested area and affected a number of trees. It covered about 40 acres, 30 of which were forested and 10 full of undergrowth.

“It was a difficult fire to fight because it was well up the mountain and crew had to haul equipment up the hill. It was a really hot day and hard on the crew.”

There have been a number of small fires in the area in recent weeks, most recently a suspected arson last Sunday.

Water tankers and fire appliances were summoned from as far away as Dungiven as crew struggled to contain the blaze.

“It stretched us to our limit and we had to call in resources which could have been dealing with house fires and that kind of incident,” the Fire Service Area Commander added.

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service also revealed it received more than 450 calls during a 24-hour period yesterday.