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It was April 1st 2025 and I had just woke up to yet another perfect day during this exceptional period of high pressure weather which had been bringing back to back sunny days, dry weather, and perfect cloudless skies with warm temperatures and today looked to be no different. The previous evening I had been filming a gorse fire in the Sperrins on a mountain called Sawel, it had been one of many such events across the country and it was now evident from reports that a major wild fire event was happening across the country. The fires were not only appearing on social media but making the main television news with the fire service stating that of this moment in time they had dealt with almost 250 wild fire incidents within N. Ireland during the course of a week, and furthermore, despite some of them being accidental, the consensus was that the vast majority were being started deliberately.
This information shocked a lot of people, why would anyone start a fire deliberately in the first place? not only is it destroying the landscape but also kills birds, nests and other wild life not to mention a threat to homes and human lives. There seems to be two main reasons for this, the first is that some of these fires are started on purpose by farmers and land owners, simply because they do need to clear land to make it ready for new growth, this is absolutely normal, however many of these types of controlled burns can quickly become uncontrolled prompting swift responses from fire crews. However one has to ask the question, why clear land when the ground is bone dry with the grass like tinder knowing this could get out of control in the first place?, some farmers have deadlines to meet within April so their hands get forced. I'm not sure if all of this is entirely true however this is what I've picked up from various people over the last few days so take it with a pinch of salt.
The other type of person who deliberately starts a fire is the arsonist, the worst kind of all. With this nasty individual everything is premeditated and planned with the arsonist then sitting back and enjoying the blaze and the associated media attention it brings. This same person likely turns up at the location to watch fire crews battle the fires as they admire their own handy work, there's little or no compassion towards the death of animals or people as a result of these fires, in my opinion the arsonist is a sick individual. Other fires can start naturally without human intervention such as when glass or highly reflective material can focus the sun's rays and heat generating a fire, unfortunately this cause was few and far between during this Spring outbreak.
On Tuesday April 1st I had a few things to take care of during the day but by evening I was planning on shooting the sunset. Saharan dust was still lingering within our atmosphere, especially out W, so I was hoping to capture images of the setting solar disk with sunspots. However I also was on the look out for more wild fires, I had a very strong feeling more would happen today and for the rest of the week, it was a logical assumption, if these fires were started deliberately then the arsonist, knowing full well the weather conditions were perfect, would be taking advantage of the situation so it was only a matter of time. Perhaps I should explain my own interest in capturing these events, to tell you the truth I'm not exactly sure why I have always added fires to my list of sky phenomena but I think it connects back to my younger years when I lived in Maghera.
During Spring and Summer evenings I always remembered seeing big fires in the direction of Glenshane Pass or Carntogher, there was no social media then and television news was not always swift enough to get on the scene so for the most part I seen these fires myself just by looking outside, often they would be followed by the screeching of sirens from the fire service. I often recalled being up late at night stargazing or checking the sky for NLCs and could often smell the scent of burning gorse coming down from the mountains. I remember one big night time fire blazing away against the twilight sky for a long time, these were unusual events which always got my attention. When I got into photography I felt a compulsion to capture these fires on camera, I would often asked my Mum to drive me out to the mountains to take images, I guess I felt I should be documenting these events for the record since they fall within the category of transient sky events. Now as a long time self employed photographer I still feel it's my duty to document these events, I also have to keep in mind that selling footage of such events is always a possibility which adds to my income too so I have to think of things from this perspective also.
When I began flying drones nine years ago I added wild fires to my list but it was a long time since I saw any more, at least locally anyway, then 2018 arrived. That hot Spring, which was dry with temps surpassing 28C for days we had a big fire outbreak and this time it was back on Glenshane Pass just like when I saw them during my younger days. For three days a fire burned their day and night, it was the largest I had ever seen in modern times, it made me realize that aerial imagery of these events was not just about documenting an event, but they can also be useful for fire crews to see the full extent of the fire, how its moving, what's on the landscape in proximity to it, and great for surveying the damage aftermath, so images can be useful. I was thinking about all this when I switched on my lap top after dinner to chat with mates and see if there were any reports of fires, there was, they literally had just been posted online. A notable gorse fire was underway in Co. Fermanagh, then soon after reports came in of a more substantial fire on Co. Tyrone, in fact, two fires near Ballygawley, but it seemed one of the fires was making news quickly, it was located in the countryside not far from Whitebridge Road.
I wondered if I should chance driving there? I had about three hours of light left before sunset, however the reports never indicated if the fire was big at all, it might be small, it could already be under control. Would it be worth the drive from Cookstown?, I began to get a strong feeling this fire was big, I can't explain it, it's the same instinct I sometimes get on a big chase days or aurora events when I just know something big is happening. Then reports from the fire service stated they now had four engines at the location and they had closed off the main road to the fire, this was all I needed to hear. I scanned through google maps to find out the location and plan my drive, then my dog Rhua and I hit the road. I drove through Dungannon, still no visual sign of a fire, then took the main A3 road W, 10 miles later I seen smoke in the distance, I ended up missing the turn off for a country road I had planned to take on the slip road so I had to keep driving W, I lost the fire from view, I figured it must have been well down as I didn't see smoke going high into the sky, but I was here so I was going to check it out, if it didn't work out I would shoot the sunset. 14 miles from Dungannon I arrived in Ballygawley.
I didn't know the area that well so I just navigated the roads by pure instinct, I could now see and smell smoke getting closer, I just needed a location which offered good line of sight from where I could fly the drone. I passed through the town, took a steep road past some private property, then onto a small back road on farm land which came to a dead end with a field and gate at front, this was on top of a hill, the highest in the area, and it offered me a perfect view of the fire. To my left was a house, to my right a field with horses cantering through the grass noseying at Rhua and I. I now had a perfect view of the fire at a very safe distance. The fire looked big, very big, now I knew why the smoke wasn't going high into the sky, it was blowing horizontal instead low across the landscape on the Ely breeze. The sun was getting low and I maybe had one hour left until sunset so I wasted no time and got the drone in the air and began flying in the direction of the blaze.
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Image from a distance showing how it first looked, making a visual assumption about any fire is fool hardy, especially from distance. My first impression was maybe it wasn't as big as I thought, but I knew I could be very wrong without a sense of scale, was this a small fire close by or a large fire further away?, also the one view from the ground reveals very little other than a horizontal profile, I had no idea how wide it actually was or how many point sources were blazing, this is why the drone would come in handy. I could see orange coloured smoke blowing from right to left and could make out distant wind turbines within the smoke.
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As the drone advanced closer it became apparent that this was a very large fire, the wind turbines provide a great sense of scale, they look tiny in comparison to the smoke plumes.
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Approaching the wild fire and beginning to get a sense that is was a major event. My first impression was the fire was very long, I was only facing upwind here, it extended 3 or 4 camera field of views to the left to take it all in. I would later learn from reports it was over one mile in length. My second impression was the white house, I wasn't prepared to see this, that house was close to the flames! and judging by the wind direction the smoke and flames where making a beeline for that house, this was alarming.
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Mid section of the fire with numerous areas of burning across gorse and peat land
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Panning to the W towards the sunset presented a spectacular view as smoke columns turned orange and brown from the sun reflecting through smoke particles and water droplets with the sun itself inside the plume.
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Deep crop showing the house in relation to the fire. This home and the owner would later be featured on the main BBC and UTV news, apparently the owner was at work in a different part of the country when they got a phone call from the fire service saying "they wanted our animals out of here and they were getting it tight to save our house" (BBC quote). That must have been a frightening phone call as the owners raced back to their home to rescue animals such as cats, horses and goats in a frenzy. The owners had only moved into the property six months earlier.
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Panning up to show the main smoke plume with lowering sun against a backdrop of wind turbines on the hill. What shocked me was how swiftly the smoke was blowing towards the house, I was on a hill flying the drone in perfect sunshine in dead calm conditions, however the FPV view on the controller clearly showed a stiff breeze affecting the fire. I will admit I did feel nervous about that house, the silent view from the air hides the frantic panic below, I really hoped they wouldn't loose the house.
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Another deep crop showing the house in relation to the fire. "You could see the flames, probably the height of the trees," (BBC quotes), "But when we were out there, there was that much smoke I was floating – I didn't know what was happening really."
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Backing the drone further away upwind to capture the entire scale, this was the biggest wild fire I had seen since the Glenshane fires in 2018 and this one was even wider!
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Smoke drifted across the western sky past the turbines causing the disk of the sun to turn yellow and easily visible to the naked eye, I should have taken an image with the DSLR and telephoto lens but I was too busy concentrating on flying.
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Upwind at the rear of the fire revealing its full size, this was massive and far wider than anything I had seen before, a shocking sight, the smoke plumes looked like convective clouds.
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Lost for words
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Hovering over the centre of the fire facing W towards the sun
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I flew back to my location near the horses, switched batteries, then flew out again before the light dropped. Fire trucks visible in the yard, very fortunate to also have a body of water between the house and fire, but the fire can propagate around it following the peat land. Other fire trucks can be seen on the road to the left and more houses nearby.
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Deep crop into another image showing fire crews working along the side of the pond
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The setting sun was somewhere between beauty and hell as smoke blew across landscape and over the wind turbines
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The lowering sun was casting this region into deep shadow dropping ambient light conditions, the flames seemed to stand out even more
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Centre of the fire facing N, smoke streamed into the air at an alarming speed, you can see all these moments on the video below
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SE portion, a massive curving line of flames for a mile steadily shifting to the left (W)
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Starting to get dark, cropping in close to show the house and fire. ''Flames ran around the whole perimeter of the house''. "It was the firemen that saved it, they controlled the fire away from here. ''You can actually see the area where they dampened that it didn't come in''. "I owe them everything today," he added (BBC quote).
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I was delighted to hear the house was saved and animals lives were spared thanks to the hard work of fire fighters. However at the time of filming this news wouldn't appear yet until the following day so the battle was still being thought at this time.
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Departing shot at sunset, it was just after 20.00. I really should have stayed to capture the scene after dark but I needed to get back home. With the exception of the Mournes fire this was the biggest inland fire of the outbreak, in total Forty fire personnel and 29 fire appliances were deployed and fire crews once again stated they believed the fire was started deliberately. They worked all through the night and into the next day to save the house, they deserve a medal for that.
Full footage of the Ballygawely fire covering two drone flights edited together just before sunset. That was a very dramatic evening, I drove home thinking I won't be seeing anything like that for a while. Little did I know it then but a fire just as big would happen the very next day and this time it would be closer to home. Thanks very much for reading.
Martin McKenna
