A west Belfast councillor has said it is “absolute madness” after a 5G mast was set on fire in west Belfast on Wednesday evening.
Images shared on social media show the mast on fire, the second time it’s been attacked in recent months.
Writing on social media, SDLP Councillor Paul Doherty said the fire service secured the burning mast on the Andersonstown Road and it was extinguished shortly afterwards, but said the impact of the blaze will impact the community.
“5G mast on fire on the Andersonstown Road. At one point we thought it would collapse into the businesses directly next to it or the leisure centre,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
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“Fire services have secured the mast and extinguished the fire. This will no doubt have a further impact on the surrounding community in terms of connectivity of phone services.
“I am speaking with police who are currently investigating.”
The fire comes just months after several 5G masts were damaged during a 48-hour arson rampage in west Belfast in July.
Two were set alight on the Stewartstown Road and another on the Monagh Bypass, while “extensive damage” was caused to a 5G mobile mast on Distillery Street in June.
Mr Doherty said several areas in west Belfast have been impacted by signal issues due to the repeated attacks on the masts.
“This is the latest in a long line of attacks like this in the wider west Belfast area and people need to realise how serious this situation is,” he said.
“As a result of the latest attack last night a number of businesses and the leisure centre were put at risk by such a large mast catching on fire which then had to be brought under control.
“The resources of the fire service were taken away from more important matters and I commend them for their response and extinguishing this blaze without any damage to nearby buildings.
“Damage to these masts always has a significant impact on the local community, I am regularly contacted by people and businesses who are struggling to connect to telephone and internet services, and this can continue for months at a time.
“I know that on-call nurses have experienced issues as a result of poor signal, while the operations of local taxi services have also been affected. I have contacted network providers on a number of occasions in an attempt to find solutions to these issues and restore connectivity as quickly as possible.
“People in this area are utterly fed up with these attacks and the disruption it’s causing to their lives. I would urge whoever is behind this to wise up and look at the damage they are causing to the local community.
“Whatever is fuelling this, it is achieving nothing and I would ask anyone with any information to come forward to police so we can bring these attacks to an end.”
The PSNI has been contacted for comment.