Life-saving equipment stolen from fire station

Criminals are risking causing a “catastrophic” road crash disaster after stealing almost €35,000-worth of essential life-saving emergency equipment from a West Cork fire station.

Senior firefighters have confirmed the vital equipment — including jaws of life tools, hydraulic pumps, a reciprocating saw, and rams for removing the front of cars when cutting people out of crashes — were all stolen from Dunmanway station on Sunday night.

While gardaí are keeping an open mind on the reason for the seizure, it is believed the equipment was taken to order by a criminal gang.

The equipment is not considered to have a high re-sale value and potentially re-sellable equipment which also could have been taken was left at the station.

Among the only possible reasons for such a major robbery would be to use the tools to break into unsuspecting businesses.

Another potential reason is the removal of metals — including parts of railway lines and sculptures that have gone missing across Ireland — which are then melted down and sold on the black market.

Dunmanway fire station officer Dan McCarthy hit out at the criminal gang, insisting that if a major accident had occurred in the region yesterday morning, lives would have been lost.

He said one in five call-outs for the station involved a car crash.

While the items have been temporarily replaced by back-up equipment from Bantry station, Mr McCarthy said it was “unthinkable” that anyone would even consider stealing such important tools.

“This is way below the belt, when we came in here on Monday morning we may not have noticed the equipment wasn’t there.

“If there’d been a call-out, we could have been arriving without it. Lives would have been lost. It could have been catastrophic.”

West Cork assistant chief fire officer Finbarr McNulty said the tools cost about €35,000. They include two hydraulic pumps, four hydraulic hoses (two 5m in length and two 10m in length) , two hydraulic rams, two jaws of life, one smaller cutting tool, a reciprocating saw and an impact drive, which acts like a large cordless drill to remove doors.

Anyone with information on the items, or who may have witnessed anything unusual at the Park Road area of Dunmanway on Sunday is urged to contact Clonakilty Garda Station immediately on 023 8821570.

* [e-mail]