Main A4 dual carriageway reopens after closure due to gorse fires amidst heatwave

  • UTV
  • Fire

  • WATCH: Firefighters tackle gorse fires:

Police were forced to fully closed the A4 from Dungannon to Ballygawley in both directions because of gorse fires along it.

The dual carriageway has since reopened.

In a tweet, the PSNI said that the fire service required the whole road for their equipment.

The tweet also added that drivers could not see because of the smoke.

The gorse fires come amidst an ongoing heatwave in Northern Ireland with the NIFRS only warning yesterday that a lack of rainfall and increasing temperatures could result in an "elevated wildfire risk" in the coming days.

Mark Smyth from NIFRS told UTV on Wednesday: "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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