Mystery fireball, blaze on Mourne Mountains

19:45: News is coming through on 2 metres of some sort of a fire on the Mourne Mountains which was preceded by a ball of fire falling through the sky. I am getting reports that the mountains are on fire. I will keep you posted . . .

21:35 UPDATE - short wave listeners are reporting that there are a number of fire units attending the blaze, which covers 4 square kilometres of mountainside. The fire is on the Cooley Mountains, not the Mournes. The blaze is, apparently, a good way up the mountain, a 40-minute hike according to one report. There are two separate blazes apparently. One amateur radio operator just phoned me to say he is in Carlingford village and the whole area is covered with a veil of smoke. He can see blue lights up on the mountain.

At this time, given that there are no corroborating reports, it seems that this blaze is just the latest in a series of night time gorse fires on the Cooley Mountain which have been happening on an almost nightly basis due to the dry spell. There have been numerous blazes over the past two weeks.

I contacted Astronomy Ireland who do not seem to have any reports of a fireball at this time, which would be unusual if a fireball event had occurred because they are usually flooded with emails and text messages and phone calls.