More full-time fire officers needed to give quality service to wide area of North Galway

By TOM GILMORE IN THE past repeated calls were made for more full-time fire officers around Co Galway and the current station officer in Tuam, Stephen Connolly, has added his voice to the call this week. 'The day is long past when there should be a full-time officer in all the larger and busier two-pump fire stations around the county,' says Stephen whose post is still part-time even though the Tuam station serves vast areas of three counties, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. For all fire fighters, be it the full-time crews in Galway city or the part-time members in Tuam, Mountbellew or elsewhere, their rapid response is vital when they are called out to emergencies. Stephen Connolly says that be it any time of the day or night, including Christmas Day, they are ready for the challenges and the changes that face fire fighters today. Stephen has seen the workload of fire fighters in Tuam station increase dramatically during his 23 years with the service and in particular during his eight years as a sub-officer and the past four years as station officer. The diversity of the calls, from dealing with chemical spills in factories to water rescues, are among the many changes and new challenges that face rural-based fire fighters such as the 12 are based at the Tuam station. 'When I joined it was very basic and much more ladder and fire hose-based work but now we have to deal with such a variety of incidents from house fires to road accidents to rescues from tower cranes. 'Six of us are trained as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT). As we carry a defibrillator we have to carry our cards to show that we have been trained in cardiac first response (CFR),' he added.[private] Stephen also pointed out that that it is important for members of the public to know that Tuam Fire Station has a defibrillator and in an emergency anyone can call them for this at 999 or 112. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and the response of the fire crew is fast in such situations. The growth in population in North Galway and the diversity of industries here and in adjoining counties, as well as increased traffic on the roads, has resulted in the fire service members upskilling to meet the modern demands. Galway city and county has shown a ten per cent increase in population according to the most recent census, which puts the total population of Galway at just over 250,000. Ten fire stations The county and city is served by ten fire stations, 36 full-time fire fighters in the city and of the 106 retained part-time members of the fire service, 12 are in Tuam. The part-time members must live and work within a two-mile radius of stations such as the Tuam one which restricts the personnel who can be recruited. As the hours are potentially very anti-social, the work can be very trying, especially on members with young families. But Stephen Connolly says there is great enthusiasm and energy among the members in Tuam and they are all involved in further developing their Information Technology skills as IT now plays a greater part than ever in their response to emergency situations. 'We hope to eventually have an on-board computer on our first appliance to ensure an even more rapid response when we are called out. 'Greater use of GPS is also envisaged to enable us to quickly pinpoint the destinations that we are being called out to,' he added. At present Tuam fire fighters are alerted by the Camp West monitoring station in Castlebar and the Tuam brigade is now the second call out station for emergencies in Galway city and parts of Mayo and Roscommon. Tuam has two modern Class Two B fire appliances and a 4 x 4 jeep for use in quickly alerting the public regarding road accidents. Much of the administration work is still done manually but all that is changing rapidly and Stephen says that eventually most of the manual administration work will be phased out and members will be recording all incidents on computers. The Tuam fire fighters also use a thermal-imaging camera, specially designed for complex search and rescue missions, to assess how safe it is to enter a building or to assess via its complex body heat reading system if people are trapped in crashed vehicles or in buildings. This camera can also be used to assist Gardai in some incidents that they are investigating. The camera has the ability to detect body heat, even pinpointing how many people may have been sitting in a car prior to a crash and it can help find people who might be trapped in drains or ditches after crashes. It can also detect if people are trapped in collapsed buildings and it can pinpoint if electrical sockets, plugs etc are still live following fires and where they are located. Stephen Connolly says the camera can also be a vital piece of equipment when dealing with accidents in factories. He added that the Tuam fire fighters have carried out a lot of pre-planning in case they are called out to emergencies in industrial buildings. 'We have visited 24 local businesses to do this pre-planning. This is vital to ensure that we have knowledge in advance of ever being called out to incidents in these industrial premises. 'It means that we are not going in there without knowing in advance what to expect and of course we also have to know in advance where the water connections are,' he added. In spite of the chameleon nature of the fire fighter's work today, Stephen Connolly is loud in his praise for his colleagues in Tuam and in surrounding stations as well as having a good relationship with the full-time fire crews in Galway city. 'It may be an ever changing job but we are all up for the challenges and the changes that the future will bring.'[/private]