Only by ‘grace of God’ wildfires have not cost lives, Muir says

It is only by the “grace of God” that lives have not been lost due to wildfires in Northern Ireland, Environment Minister Andrew Muir has said.

Mr Muir told MLAs that the “overwhelming majority” of recent rural fires in the region had been started deliberately.

Firefighters in Northern Ireland dealt with almost 300 wildfires in a single week during April.

These included a blaze in the Mourne Mountains in Co Down which sparked a major incident and saw people evacuated from their homes.

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said it received 2,014 emergency calls from April 3-10. Of these, the service attended 1,112 incidents, including 296 wildfires.

Mr Muir was asked about the fires during ministerial question time at the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday.

He said: “The recent spate of wildfire incidents was very concerning as wildfires not only have the potential to have devastating impacts on the environment but they are also a risk to life, homes and farms.”

He described the fires as “deliberate acts of rural arson”.

SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone asked the minister if he knew what proportion of the recent fires had been started deliberately.

Mr Muir said: “My engagement with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service has been that the overwhelming majority of these have been deliberately set.

“It is only by the grace of God that no-one has been killed here in Northern Ireland as a result of these fires and I would urge anyone who has any information to pass that on to the police.”

He added: “We have to be very clear around our attitudes to these fires. They are not something we should see as headlines that come and go, they are something we need to have a different attitude towards.

“We need to have an attitude that if we know anyone who was lighting these fires, we have to contact the police and we have to be prepared to give evidence to take it to court.”

The minister described scenes of damage caused to rural areas by fire as “very distressing”.

DUP MLA Keith Buchanan asked what more could be done to educate people about the dangers of rural fires.

Mr Muir said: “We all have a role as elected representatives to profile those communications and to encourage people with any information to bring it to the police because we need prosecutions around this, we need to see people in court.

“But that requires people who are prepared to give evidence.

“We also need to be conscious that what people may see as a localised fire can very quickly spread and can have devastating consequences.

“People need to be very conscious of their behaviour in the countryside because we have seen other parts of the world where people have lost their lives.

“That is my concern around this.”