Northern Ireland Fire Service warn of 'elevated wildfire risk' due to rising temperatures

The Northern Ireland Fire Service (NIFRS) has warned that a lack of rainfall and increasing temperatures could result in an "elevated wildfire risk" in the coming days.

The weather is expected to reach high 20s by the weekend.

Mark Smyth from NIFRS told UTV: "Humidity is down and the wind will be picking up.

"Those are concerns we have at the minute as the ground is tinder dry. You can start to see the vegetation starting to brown around the country.

"We are concerned that there could be an elevated risk of wildfire if it should take off over the weekend," he added.

He also warned that if resources have to be diverted to tackle fires on mountains, there "could be a delay" in response to other call outs - something the service is seeking to prevent occurring.

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