A man has been arrested in relation to a serious wildfire in County Down.
Over 100 firefighters spent 10 hours tackling the blaze overnight.
A major incident was declared and families were evacuated from their homes last night, as this fire spread in Hilltown, near the Mourne Mountains.
The alarm was first raised at 5:00pm yesterday evening – with fire crews managing to bring it under control by 3 o’clock this morning.
At its height, the blaze had a fire front of about 3 kilometres.
The PSNI has since arrested a 25 year old man on suspicion of arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered – he’s being questioned about the incident.
Police are appealing to anyone who was in the Sandbank Road area of Hilltown yesterday and noticed anything out of the ordinary to contact them.
It comes as firefighters currently deal with another, separate gorse fire in the Silent Valley/Ben Crom area of the Mourne Mountains – with members of the public urged to avoid the area.
