{"id":706062,"date":"2026-01-19T09:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/706062\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:17:17","slug":"newry-fire-leads-police-to-cannabis-factory-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/706062\/","title":{"rendered":"Newry fire leads police to cannabis factory discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

LATEST\u00a0|\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emergency services at the scene of cannabis factory fire in Co Down<\/p>\n

A house fire in Newry alerted police to existence of a cannabis factory after the fire service discovered the drug and paraphernalia.<\/p>\n

The house fire got underway on Thomas Street in Bessbrook on Sunday shortly before 4.30pm. Four fire engines from Newry, Banbridge, and Warrenpoint attended the blaze.<\/p>\n

The Belfast Telegraph understands when firefighters in breathing apparatus entered a property, they discovered a cannabis factory on the ground floor.<\/p>\n

Some neighbouring residents evacuated their homes as firefighters dealt with the incident.<\/p>\n

\"Emergency<\/p>\n

Emergency services deal with a fire at a cannabis factory in the Thomas Street area of Bessbrook on January 18th 2026 (Photo by Kevin Scott) <\/p>\n

There was no-one in the house and no injuries reported after the fire service extinguished the blaze.<\/p>\n

Inspector Walker said: \u201cOfficers attended the scene, along with colleagues from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, who extinguished the fire and advised police there was a substantial amount of cannabis and associated paraphernalia within the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, there was no one in the house at the time and no injuries were reported. I would like to reassure the local community once again that there was no ongoing risk to the public from the fire and that the scene was subsequently made safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire is not being treated as suspicious at this stage and our enquiries are ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTargeting the supply of drugs is a priority for the Police Service of Northern Ireland and we would appeal to anyone who has any information which could be of assistance to contact our non-emergency number on 101, quoting reference number 870 of 18\/01\/25.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlternatively, you can also submit a report online using the non-emergency reporting form at http:\/\/www.psni.police.uk\/makeareport\/ or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http:\/\/crimestoppers-uk.org\/<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Kevin Scott at the scene:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I understand from crews at the scene that the fire started accidentally in the upstairs of the property.<\/p>\n

\"Emergency<\/p>\n

Emergency services deal with a fire at a cannabis factory in the Thomas Street area of Bessbrook on January 18th 2026 (Photo by Kevin Scott) <\/p>\n

No one was in the small house at the time; as I stand at the front door, I can see a number of the plants in the living room of the property remaining unaffected.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland Electricity have arrived at the scene at 7pm where they are looking to isolate the electric supply.<\/p>\n

Forensic teams have been tasked to the scene and are expected in the next few hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LATEST\u00a0|\u00a0 Emergency services at the scene of cannabis factory fire in Co Down A house fire in Newry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1384,6723,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-706062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-down-news","9":"tag-kevin-scott","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115921016961874881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}