Irish army fly in to help crews fight gorse blaze

THE Irish Air Corps sent two helicopters to help battle a gorse fire in Northern Ireland yesterday.

They were called into action as firefighters on the ground at Tollymore, outside Newcastle in Co Down, fought to contain the blaze.

A Defence Forces spokesman said the aircraft, which were dispatched from Baldonnel Airbase in Co Dublin yesterday afternoon, were sent “following a request to support ongoing firefighting ops”.

Video footage appearing on social media showed an Augusta Westland refilling at Newcastle Harbour.

The spokesman added: “The helicopter is equipped with a 1,200litre capacity Bambi bucket which can be filled from a body of water and dropped on the fire. A Eurocopter EC135 also took off and will be operating in an overwatch role while operations are ongoing.”

Sinn Fein MLA Chris Hazzard said: “It’s an incredible job the fire crews are doing. They’re coming down off the mountain covered in soot and clearly exhausted.

“I can’t imagine how hard it must be going up there in this heat in those uniforms and carrying all that equipment. If there’s people starting these fires deliberately they need to catch themselves on.”

It’s an incredible job crews are doing. They’re exhausted CHRIS HAZZARD

SOUTH DOWN YESTERDAY