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[Kirth]

Firefighters tackle blaze on Slieve Donard


About 50 firefighters are tackling a large gorse fire on Slieve Donard Mountain near Newcastle in County Down.
They were called to the scene just before 0500 BST on Friday.
Area Commander Dale Ashford from the Fire Service says crews are trying to get the blaze under control to stop it spreading.
"It's a major fire and as with all these type of fires because of the location of it access is difficult," he said.
"There is a danger of the fire spreading into forestry, which would have more severe consequences but our crews are working hard to try and prevent that.
"They're getting themselves between the fire and the forest to hopefully get that beat out as quickly as possible."

[RedLeader]

Wonder wereabouts on Donard that is?

[ChuckMcB]

Kirth's quote is from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8638993.stm

Is it not a bit strange the fire starting at 5am on a Friday? You would think that the yahoos would not be up at that time.

[Scribble]

Just decided since the weathers good and Its set not to rain tonight I'm going to hit the mournes for an overnighter. Anyone can join me I've no set plans just somewhere in the mournes.

maybe someones fire got out of control

[ChuckMcB]

@andyd: Opps. 

Thinking about it, I suppose it's got to be along the line between the ice house (top of Donard Wood) and the top of the granite trail (Millstone Quarry?). Could have been someone going for a early morning slash & cig.

[Kirth]

Whats the chances of these fires starting naturally?  Suppose in hotter climates maybe.

[RedLeader]

When we were up last weekend the gorse was extremely dried out in places. I suppose it's not impossible that it was started by natural causes.

[suspectmonkey]

Would be quite a rude awakening if you were having an overnighter in Donard Wood!

[ChuckMcB]

Defiantly in hotter climbs, (also don't forget the grouse 'farmers' in Scotland strip burn the heather to allow the birds to feed on the new growth). Perhaps a glass bottle etc with the sun shining on it all day would be enough to start it here. But in this particular case I would have thought that the dew on the ground at 5am would have been enough to dampen even the strongest early morning sun.

Would be quite a rude awakening if you were having an overnighter in Donard Wood!

Yea, I'm still a bit nervous about camping in woods (don't want to have a tree/branch fall on me ...at least you should smell (hear?) the burning wood/pegs/tarp/ruck/boots/sleepingbag  )

[DryBag]

More likely to have smouldered for a few hours before anybody noticed it.  I'm told peat can burn underground for weeks before igniting.

[suspectmonkey]

Would be quite a rude awakening if you were having an overnighter in Donard Wood!

Yea, I'm still a bit nervous about camping in woods (don't want to have a tree/branch fall on me ...at least you should smell (hear?) the burning wood/pegs/tarp/ruck/boots/sleepingbag  )

I hadn't given a thought fo falling trees/branches until Billy Backpack mentioned it.  I've been looking up before pitching ever since

Funny, I had said to Jonno recently that I don't hear much when I'm sleeping overnight outdoors because I usually wear earplugs.  But I did mention that I would be a bit wary if I was camping solo incase there was a fire or something and I was sleeping through it blissfully unaware   I would probably just be wondering why my sleeping bag was so toasty!

[chris]

Would be quite a rude awakening if you were having an overnighter in Donard Wood!

Yea, I'm still a bit nervous about camping in woods (don't want to have a tree/branch fall on me ...at least you should smell (hear?) the burning wood/pegs/tarp/ruck/boots/sleepingbag  )

I hadn't given a thought fo falling trees/branches until Billy Backpack mentioned it.  I've been looking up before pitching ever since

Funny, I had said to Jonno recently that I don't hear much when I'm sleeping overnight outdoors because I usually wear earplugs.  But I did mention that I would be a bit wary if I was camping solo incase there was a fire or something and I was sleeping through it blissfully unaware   I would probably just be wondering why my sleeping bag was so toasty!

Think I suffer from that aswell, rescue heli's inparticular I find hard to hear!

[billy backpack]

Heli's...... Chris be careful you don't get censored ! There are some things are better left unsaid...lol

[ChuckMcB]

Yup, it seems to have been on the "edge of Thomas’s Mountain, above Donard Park". Source

Randy McComb, Group Commander Southern Area Command with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, said the alarm was raised at 12.30am yesterday.

So not 5am as the BBC said (but the fire services could have been waiting for first light before responding).

“There have been quite a few in this past while. Between April 7 and April 11 there were 228 of them across Northern Ireland."

That's a lot of fires.  

[RedLeader]

We were discussing at the weekend what might happen to the permissions for camping inside the Mourne Wall in years to come if this sort of thing becomes a widespread problem. As far as I know there is technically no permission granted to camp by the water board and they would probably have the right to ban camping except in certain places. That would be a shame!

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