Port of Cork urged to publish emergency plan following R&H Hall fire 

Units of the Cork Fire Brigade on the scene of the huge blaze at a grain store in Ringaskiddy, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

The Port of Cork has been urged to make its emergency plan publicly available, as has been done by the other Tier 1 ports in the country and Seveso1-designated industries in Cork harbour.

Carrigaline Municipal District Council is writing to the port authority demanding it publish the report now, especially in the aftermath of a major fire last year at the R&H Hall plant, which is on its property.

A county councillor who sought a copy of the Port of Cork emergency plan was told by the company she couldn’t have it due to security reasons and because it's commercially sensitive. However, the country’s other Tier 1 ports in Dublin and Shannon/Foynes have made their emergency plans public.

Independent councillor Marcia D’Alton won unanimous support from council colleagues for the move after she maintained there’s no reason the port can’t publish the plan if it removes the sensitive pieces.

She said residents in the lower harbour want to get more information on what they should do in the event of an emergency and the Port of Cork emergency plan should be a guide for them.

Community concern

“In the wake of the fire, the harbour communities and in particular the Ringaskiddy community were very concerned that they were entirely uninformed about how they would be communicated with when an emergency happens; who might do that communication; how they would know what to do; how they would know whether to keep their windows open or closed; how they might get off the peninsula if that was necessary; and how they might leave home if the only road out of Ringaskiddy was blocked,” she said.

Ms D’Alton said these questions can only be answered when the communities are aware of and understand the emergency procedures they can expect to see put into action.

“I wasn't permitted to have a copy of the Port of Cork’s emergency plan. I was told it’s commercially sensitive and for security reasons it couldn't be made publicly available.

"There are a number of Seveso One facilities in the Ringaskiddy area which also have internal emergency plans. I requested a copy of these and all were provided to me with confidential passages extracted,” Ms D’Alton said.

Fine Gael councillor Michael Paul Murtagh, who works for Cork City Fire Brigade, said the plan needs to be made public, as it is very worrying for residents in the lower harbour to not have knowledge of it, especially after they saw “huge black plumes of smoke” emanated from the R&H Hall fire.

“There’s a lot of worry and anxiety amongst residents in the area and I don’t think enough has been done to put minds at ease. People need to know what exactly is in the plan,” Fine Gael councillor Jack White said.