Smoke from Mourne Mountains fire visible from space

The public is being urged to avoid the area close to a large fire in the Mourne Mountains of County Down.

Gorse fires have been a common occurrence across the Mournes in recent weeks, with similar fires also occurring in Clare, Cavan, Antrim, Kerry, and Tyrone over the past fortnight.

The latest blaze in County Down is being tackled by almost 70 firefighters from 8 units of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

A number of roads in the area around Hilltown village have been closed.

Smoke from the two-mile-wide blaze was captured in satellite imagery by EUMETSAT on Saturday evening.

Smoke from another large wildfire in Galloway Forest Park in western Scotland is also visible in the satellite imagery.

The latest incident comes just five days after a fire was extinguished near Spelga Dam in the Mourne Mountains and other fires on Slieve Binnian the previous week.

Elsewhere, there have been fires in the Glens of Antrim, Bridgetown and Doonbeg in Clare, the Sperrin Mountains in County Tyrone, Killarney in Kerry, and in West Cavan.

Ireland is currently under a Status Orange High Forest Fire Risk Warning until next Monday.

The alert has been put in place due to forecast dry weather and moderate easterly winds over the next 10 to 14 days, following a drier-than-average March.

Under Irish law, the cutting, grubbing, burning, or other destruction of vegetation growing on “any land not then cultivated” is prohibited between 1st March and 31st August annually.