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User:Hullian111/sandbox/Fire services in the Republic of Ireland

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Cork City Fire Brigade in action

The Fire services in the Republic of Ireland are managed by the local authorities of each of the 26 counties, three cities, and two counties and cities of the Republic of Ireland.

Emergency cover is provided by thirty agencies. There are 218 fire stations around the country, crewed by 3,245 fire personnel, of which 2,039 are retained (part-time, on a 24-hour basis) and 1,206 are full-time firefighters.[1] The Irish government maintains national standards with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, via the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management, providing oversight in advisory and policy-making roles.[2]

With some exceptions, fire services in the Republic of Ireland are commonly known as county fire services or county fire and rescue services. The use of fire brigades, as it has in the United Kingdom, has increasingly been phased out to reflect the broader capabilities of the fire services.

History

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A horse-drawn fire engine of the Curragh Camp fire brigade, County Kildare, circa. 1902

Insurance companies were the first to form fire brigades in Ireland, extinguishing the fires of buildings they both insured and did not insure, the latter of whom would have to pay the company for their services. Insured buildings would be issued with fire insurance plaques.[3] In 1711, Ireland's first two fire engines was acquired, purchased for £6 on behalf of the Dublin Corporation and maintained with a crew of six firefighters by John Oates, Dublin's water engineer and a manufacturer of water pumps.[4]

The passage of the Towns Improvement Act in 1854 granted towns of over 1,500 residents permission to form a fire brigade.[5] The Dublin Fire Brigade was first created in 1862, with the Cork City Fire Brigade following in 1877. These would eventually replace the insurance fire brigades.

Modern firefighting would first begin in the Republic of Ireland with the passage of the Fire Brigades Act 1940, mandating the creation of fire brigades by each of the local authorities of the counties of Ireland.[1] A year later on 15 April 1941, the first Belfast Blitz occured, killing up to 900 people and starting 140 fires throughout the city. Taoiseach Éamon De Valera approved a request for assistance from Northern Irish Minister of Public Safety John MacDermott, sending 71 firefighters and thirteen fire engines from Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Drogheda and Dundalk to Belfast to assist their overwhelmed Northern Irish counterparts, returning across the border three days later.[6][7][8]

The Stardust fire in 1981 gave rise to a new Fire Services Act, setting out regulations for fire cover, training, planning and prevention measures.[3]

Fire services today

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Public fire and rescue services

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A fire engine of the Dublin Fire Brigade
A fire engine of the Limerick City and County Fire and Rescue Setvice

Fire services in Ireland are still the responsibility of all 31 local authorities of Ireland. Most are run as county fire services or county fire and rescue services with the exception of the cities of Dublin and Cork, who maintain the Dublin Fire Brigade and Cork City Fire Brigade respectively.

Some fire services, such as those in the counties of Mayo, Kildare and Roscommon, as well as the cities of Dublin and Galway, charge the owners of premises they attend or owners of vehicles involved in a traffic accident, depending on how many hours they spend at the scene; several counties, including County Cork, Kilkenny and Offaly, set maximum charge caps of between €1,500 to €2,000. Other fire services, such as those in the counties of Kerry, Monaghan, Sligo and Waterford and the city of Cork, do not issue Fire Service Charges for callouts.[9][10][11]

The county fire and rescue services in Ireland are:

'Keeping Communities Safe' framework

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In February 2013, the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management published the 'Keeping Communities Safe - A Framework for Fire Safety in Ireland' policy document, which contained proposals intended to streamline the fire services of Ireland into more effective services under a series of national standards and processes.[12] The framework document suggested the cutting of the number of county fire services to 21, leaving 14 individual fire services and 7 'shared services',[1] as well as a reduction in the number of personnel attending fires and other callouts from six to four. Proposals from the 'Keeping Communities Safe' framework were later written into the Fire and Emergency Operations Plans of county councils across Ireland,

Plans for the reduction of personnel, later introduced by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, were criticised by the SIPTU trade union. County Clare's planned implementation of cuts to fire crews in 2014 were criticised by SIPTU and the Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association as "unsafe, unworkable, and exposing firefighters and the communities they serve to unacceptable risks",[13] and in March 2015, around 1,700 retained firefighters represented by SIPTU from across Ireland voted in favour of strike action in the event that crewing cuts went ahead, citing fears that the reduction would risk the safety of both firefighters and the general public.[14][15][16]

Civil Defence Ireland

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Main article: Civil Defence Ireland
Two appliances of the County Clare Civil Defence

Civil Defence Ireland (Irish: Cosaint Shibhialta na hÉireann) is the national civil defence organisation of Ireland. It is a statutory agency of the Irish Department of Defence and is administered by local authorities.

Founded in 1951 in response to the threat of nuclear disaster posed by the development of the atomic bomb, Civil Defence Ireland today exists as a voluntary organisation that supports both the fire and rescue services and other emergency services of Ireland, attending the scenes of natural disasters such as flooding and other severe weather, as well as major road traffic accidents and missing person searches.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Fire authorities". gov.ie. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. 29 May 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Fire services". citizensinformation.ie. Citizens Information. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Fire Service History". westmeathcoco.ie. West Meath County Council. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  4. ^ Mulvihill, Mary (2003). Ingenious Ireland: A County-by-County Exploration of the Mysteries and Marvels of the Ingenious Irish. Dublin: TownHouse. p. 95. ISBN 1-86059-145-0.
  5. ^ "Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854". irishstatutebook.ie. 10 August 1854.
  6. ^ Quinn, Joseph (16 April 2021). "The Belfast Blitz and a night that briefly united Ireland". The Irish Times. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  7. ^ O'Flaherty, Paddy (13 April 2011). "Hidden Heroes of the Belfast Blitz". RTÉ. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  8. ^ "Blitz fire engine from Irish Republic in Belfast". BBC News. 14 April 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  9. ^ McQuinn, Cormac (15 April 2013). "Fire brigade fees range from €750 to zero – based on where you live". The Irish Independent. Dublin. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Fire Brigade Charges". Dublin City Council. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  11. ^ McHale, Michael (5 June 2022). "County Cork homeowners pay €1,320 for house fire callouts, while Cork City fires are free". Irish Examiner. Dublin. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Keeping Communities Safe". gov.ie. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. 23 December 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  13. ^ Rogers, Stephen (19 April 2014). "Lives of firefighters 'at risk' under new plan". Irish Examiner. Dublin. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  14. ^ Hade, Emma Jane (20 March 2015). "Retained firefighters nationwide vote 'overwhelmingly' in favour of industrial action - Siptu". The Irish Independent. Dublin. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  15. ^ "SIPTU firefighters vote in favour of industrial action". RTÉ News. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  16. ^ D'Arcy, Ciarán (24 February 2015). "Firefighters willing to strike over crewing reductions, say unions". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  17. ^ "About Us". Civil Defence Ireland. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
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