Police flying over the Claudy area on Sunday. Credit: PSNI Air Support
Posting to Twitter on Sunday night, the PSNI’s Air Support team said they helped the North’s Fire and Rescue Service and the PSNI’s Derry City and Strabane staff “with reports of someone deliberately lighting gorse fires in the Claudy area”.
The emergency services reportedly “dealt with them before they escalated”.
“Such mindless actions ties up valuable resources that could be needed elsewhere,” added the police spokesperson.
Gorse is a shrub very commonly found around the island Ireland.
The prickly evergreen is highly flammable and when it catches alight can spread very quickly.
Recent high temperatures across the country has provided ideal growing conditions for gorse, and therefore ideal fire spreading conditions.
The NIFRS recently released a further wildfire warning statement, after a week in which they dealt with 67 wildfires, while also responding to 238 other emergency incidents across the North of Ireland.
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