'I saw water running out my front door but I just walked past it': Midleton firefighters praised

Firefighter Dave Owers and Acting Sub Officer John Paul Garde swim to help a woman in her 80s. Picture: Cork Safety Alerts

At the height of the flooding in Midleton on Wednesday, a woman in her 80s using a walker was submerged in 4ft of water inside her home, while 8ft of water surrounded her house outside.

Local firefighters swam to her door to help her escape, however, the woman feared letting go of her walker and was brought upstairs where she could get dry while waiting for the army to arrive with a boat.

Some three hours later, the boat arrived, with firefighters getting the woman to safety.

“That woman was so close to drowning in her own house,” said Midleton Fire Station Officer Mark Sinclair.

“There’s actually a picture of the two firefighters swimming down to her house. Whoever took the picture didn’t know where they were going but that’s where they were actually going, to try and help that woman,” he said.

One of the firefighters who swam to the woman’s house was John Paul Garde, whose own house was flooding at the time, however his family was safe.

Emergency personnel work in the floods in Main St, Midleton. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

It is one of countless similar stories where emergency services helped locals get to safety despite seeing their own homes flooding in the distance.

Mr Sinclair said at least four houses owned by firefighters, including one of his own, were being deluged as they raced to evacuate others from their homes.

“I saw water running out my front door but I just walked past it,” he said.

The homes of two other firefighters, who are brothers, were also flooded, and among those they helped to escape the floods was their own father.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mr Sinclair said. 

The station received around 180 calls on Wednesday, more than half of which concerned lives at risk and were prioritised.

People needed help, that’s what kept us going, no matter how bad anyone was. There were people worse off than us and that's what we joined the job for.

“I’ve never seen anything like it but the one thing I’ve never seen either is the coming-together, it was just phenomenal,” he said, adding that on Friday morning, some 150 transition year students from Midleton CBS “were going up and down the town helping people”.

“I have so much praise for my crew and all of the organisations that assisted us,” he said, adding further praise for fire service management who provided new protective equipment “at the drop of a hat”.