Lives of firefighters ‘at risk’ under new plan

A fire chief in Clare has rejected claims by fire brigade unions that a new plan for the service will put the lives of firefighters and the public at risk.

Councillors backed the Fire and Emergency Operations Plan 2014-2019 at their meeting in Kilkee without debate.

However, in a statement, Siptu referred to “the extreme safety risk that arises from the proposition to now send only four crew on a fire appliance where the national and international best practice is six”.

“To expect four firefighters to try to deal with a fire effectively means that the crew would have to stand by while people were trapped in a building while awaiting extra crew from another station elsewhere in the county,” Siptu said.

“The time delay would undoubtedly lead to tragedy. The Clare county committee of retained firefighters are calling for this decision to be rescinded at the May meeting of the council and will be making this an issue in the coming local elections.”

Yesterday, those concerns were echoed by the Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association, which said the fire safety plan is the local implementation of the “Department of the Environment-sponsored” keeping communities safe strategy for fire and emergency services.

It said that firefighters had described the plans as “‘unsafe, unworkable, and exposing firefighters and the communities they serve to unacceptable risks”.

The association said it had made its concerns about the keeping communities safe strategy known to Clare County Council last September. Those concerns included:

* Reduced numbers of firefighters and fire stations;

* Fewer incidents responded to;

* Response times will be slower with insufficient resources deployed;

* Property damage from fire is likely to increase;

* There will be a real and substantial threat to the health and safety of firefighters.

However, the council’s chief fire officer, Adrian Kelly, dismissed concerns, saying there is no plan “at this time” to close any fire stations, nor to change the number of firefighters that respond on a fire engine in the future.

“Indeed, it is intended that, overall, there would be additional personnel available to respond on fire engines in the future if the plan is implemented, particularly in both Ennis and Shannon which are the two busiest fire stations,” he said.

Mr Kelly said the plan had been independently verified by the external validation group of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management and it was satisfied that the plan was in keeping with national policy.

“This is a five-year plan, with different timescales to be agreed for the various changes,” Mr Kelly said.

“It is hoped that the community fire safety initiatives will be implemented sooner rather than later.

“If there are any concerns for firefighters with changes to work practices, these will be progressed through the normal industrial relations channels, similar to other employees.”