Time for a national fire service

Stephen15

The fire on Bray head got me thinking why can't there be a national fire brigade. I'm sure fire tenders are coming from all over Wicklow to put it out even though Dun Laoghaire or Donnybrook DFB fire station is far nearer than some of the stations in Wicklow. Also there could be more investment in equipment such fire fighting planes for bad bush fires. The only argument against it is it could mean the end for the DFB ambulance service a solution for that could be have dual fire/nas bases for the Dublin fire stations.

civdef

Bad bush fire?

timmywex

Due, it happens worse in other places too!

One example I can think of is Bunclody, fire station is in Wexford but only 500m up the road is the border for Carlow. Guess what happens if there's a fire in the Carlow area....(most of the time that is!)

civdef

Section 85 Local Government Act, provides for this type of situation nicely.

As regards Bray head, lots of people putting pictures online (including RTE) of a bit of gorse burning doesn't make it a major incident.

ylwambulnce

Why though? As it stands each county has several fire stations, most have 5 or 10 stations.

with a national ambulance service each county is lucky to have 1 ambulance station, maybe 2.

I think the local authority system is working better.

Stephen15

ylwambulnce wrote: »

Why though? As it stands each county has several fire stations, most have 5 or 10 stations.

with a national ambulance service each county is lucky to have 1 ambulance station, maybe 2.

I think the local authority system is working better.

So why don't we regionalise the ambulance service on a county by county basis. More money could spent on fire fighting resources that are needed on a nationwide basis such helicopters and drones for tacklingredients larget blazes money which local authorities maybe unwilling to pay. Another why does DCC fund the DFB even though they serve an area outside of their jurisdiction how long have they being doing that. I know DLR used to have a fire service how long has that been gone.

oneway1

Dlr, fingal, and south dublin all have to pay dcc for services provided by the dfb, they don't get it for nothing

Stephen15

oneway1 wrote: »

Dlr, fingal, and south dublin all have to pay dcc for services provided by the dfb, they don't get it for nothing

So how come they continue to pay for dfb ambulances maybe I'm wrong but they wouldn't have to pay for NAS ambulances

Prenderb

Stephen15 wrote: »

So how come they continue to pay for dfb ambulances maybe I'm wrong but they wouldn't have to pay for NAS ambulances

The ambulance service provided for the HSE by Dublin Fire Brigade is funded separately, by the HSE.

flazio

I would say, perhaps not a national Fire service, but a centralised despatch system is what's needed here.
I know for a fact that plenty of fire services cross county borders regularly. For example, any incident in County Roscommon in the hinterlands along the M6 and on the M6 itself, are dealt with by either Ballinasloe (Galway) or Athlone (Westmeath).
According to blues-twos.com there is no Fire station in Roscommon south of Roscommon town.

flyingsnail

Does anybody know what stations actually responded, I have seen two sources (Irish times and 98fm) say there was 4 units on scene which would have probably have just been Bray and Greystones which are the closest stations anyway.

flyingsnail

flazio wrote: »

I would say, perhaps not a national Fire service, but a centralised despatch system is what's needed here.
.

Don't we kind of have that anyway with the three regional command centres, Limerick (covers Munster), Roscommon (covers the west) and Dublin (covers east)