FARMERS and land managers have been urged to stop all prescribed burning amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Stormont agriculture minister Edwin Poots said he hoped it would reduce additional pressures on Northern Ireland’s emergency services. He also warned the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) may not be able to guarantee the normal level of response to wildfires during the pandemic.
His appeal comes after fire crews dealt with numerous gorse fires in Co Down since Sunday.
In the most recent on Wednesday, crews tackled a large fire at Newry Road, Kilkeel after 9pm. The blaze of approximately four acres of gorse was well alight when crews arrived and the Fire Service said the cause was deliberate ignition.
On Sunday, the fire-fighters were called to three separate gorse and grass fires in Newcastle and Newry - all found to be deliberate ignition.
Another gorse fire was extinguished on the Head Road in Kilkeel on Monday, while crews also dealt with another at Bloody Bridge, Newcastle and later on another fire at Quarter Road in the town. The Fire Service said they were all deliberate ignition.
In a statement yesterday, agriculture and environment minister Edwin Poots called for "prescribed burning" to be stopped until September in a bid to "not add unnecessary pressures to the emergency services".
"Prescribed burning is a method of land management used to improve our game habitat and the quality of grazing in areas of upland dominated by heather," he said.
"Land owners and managers usually carry out prescribed burning from mid-March to mid-April, because weather and ground conditions best suit the work.
"However, prescribed burning can be one of the causes of wildfires that then requires NIFRS, PSNI, NI Environment Agency and the Forest Service to act.
"As we work our way through this crisis no one should start a fire in the countryside and place further strain on our already stretched emergency services.
"The NIFRS, for example, cannot currently guarantee they will be able to provide the normal level of response to wildfires."
He added: "It is important that we all play our part in protecting our communities and vulnerable citizens during this national emergency, to ensure that we do not add unnecessary pressures to the emergency services".
Alan Walmsley of the NIFRS said: "The Covid-19 pandemic will lead to significant pressures on NIFRS including a reduction in the number of frontline firefighters available for emergency response.
"We would therefore appeal to farmers to support us by not carrying out controlled burning at this time and appeal to the public to be fire safe."
