Firecall Spring 2019

SPRING 2019

FIRECALL OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF DUBLIN FIRE, AMBULANCE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

A new era CFO DENNIS KEELEY ON

HIS VISION FOR THE DFB

A DAY TO REMEMBER DFB AND THE ST PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATIONS 000_FC_Spring 2019_Cover_V2.indd 1

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DUBLIN FIRE RESCUE EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE

PROTECTING THE CITY AND COUNTY SINCE 1862

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CONTENTS

04

EDITOR’S LETTER

19

A DAY TO REMEMBER DFB celebrate St Patrick’s Day.

05

FOREWORD

Pipe Band Update

13

09

TERRY KEARNEY’S RETIREMENT

30

38

STATION PROFILE

A Watch Tara Street.

34

The Italian III Job A cycling trip through Italy.

A NEW ERA

Darragh Clarke receives award.

Tiernach Cassidy recalls his experience.

NEW CYCLING CLUB GEAR LAUNCH

CFO Dennis Keeley shares his vision.

DFB CONTROLLER HELPS SAVE MENTOR

9/11: A FIREFIGHTER’S STORY

NEWSLETTER

DFB IN BRIEF

24

36

FIRST DÁIL CENTENARY The Mansion House hosts history.

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CONTENTS

NEW RECRUITS PASS OUT

44

53

GOLF CLUB NEWS

46

62

GERRY CONDRON

TRAVEL

Retired Members:

Firefighter / Advanced Paramedic Gerry Condron.

OBI COURSES Maintaining a high level of excellence.

3 Great Group Destinations.

68

FIRST CITIZEN Lord Mayor Nial Ring’s work with DFB.

ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE Rescue Org Ireland’s RTC and Trauma Challenge.

50

International STATION PROFILE North Lauderdale Fire Rescue, Florida.

60

58

A PIECE OF HISTORY Las Fallon on old firemarks.

72

TECHNOLOGY The latest innovations for the emergency services.

76

BOOK SHELF

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

CONTENTS SPRING 02 FIRECALL

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26/04/2019 12/02/2019 09:54 06/10/2016 14:29 17:24

EDITOR’S LETTER Editor: Adam Hyland Consulting Editor: Dan Fynes Contributors: Mark Toner, Las Fallon, Dan Fynes, Brendan Lodola Creative Director: Jane Matthews Designer: James Moore Cover Credit: DFB Photography: Dublin Fire Brigade, Ray McMonagle, Trevor Hunt, Tony McEvoy, James Moore, Adam Hyland, Tiernach Cassidy, Las Fallon, Eithne Scully, iStock Production Executives: Claire Kiernan and Julie Dunne Publisher: Chesterfox Ltd, T/A Firecall Magazine, P.O. Box 6766, Dublin 2.

Tel: (01) 432 2200; Fax: (01) 6727100 Managing Director: Gerry Tynan Chairman: Diarmaid Lennon Distribution by: Magazine Mailing Ashville Media Group Unit 55, Park West Road, Park West, Dublin 12 Tel: (01) 432 2200 Fax: (01) 676 6043 Publisher’s Statement: The information in Firecall is carefully researched and believed to be accurate and authoritative, but neither the Dublin Fire Brigade Sports & Social Club nor the publisher can accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. Statements and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the publisher.

Copyright ©2018 Firecall Magazine No part of this may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher.

letter from the

EDITOR ear readers, Welcome to the latest issue of Firecall, full of news and features from across Dublin Fire Brigade and beyond.

It has been a busy few months, with the confirmation of new CFO Dennis Keeley and the St Patrick’s Day celebrations chief among them, and here we capture just some of the many notable events involving DFB members since the previous issue. I was delighted to talk to CFO Keeley towards the end of March about his career, his vision for the future of the Dublin Fire Brigade, and the challenges the service has to overcome in the coming years, and am sure that this feature will prove to be very interesting reading for all members.

Speaking to Lord Mayor Nial Ring was an honour, and I would like to express my thanks to him for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk about the many ways in which he has helped form a strong connection with DFB and the citizens of Dublin.

It was also an honour to speak to former New York Fire Department firefighter Tiernach Cassidy, whose story of survival during the 9/11 terror attacks is remarkable.

Also in this issue, we take a look at the best images from the St Patrick’s Day celebrations, which as always saw the DFB at the forefront, and discuss the OBI courses that help maintain a high level of excellence. I am also again in debt to historian Las Fallon for his valuable contribution, as well as all other interviewees and contributors.

A Watch at HQ were a pleasure to visit, and my thanks to them for showing me around and to D/O Derek Cheevers for his valuable input.

It was also a pleasure to talk to retired member Gerry Condron, who had the unusual experience of having already been retired by the time he joined the DFB. He shares his stories about his experiences and what the brigade meant to him.

Once again, thanks to all who helped put this issue together.

I hope you enjoy the read,

Adam Hyland

EDITOR’S PICKS

p

A NEW ERA

CFO Dennis Keeley on his vision for the DFB.

26 9/11: A FIREFIGHTER’S STORY

Tiernach Cassidy on surviving the World Trade Center terror attacks.

p FIRST CITIZEN

Lord Mayor Nial Ring’s close relationship with DFB. We are updating our mailing list. If your contact details are out of date, please email: adam.hyland@ ashvillemediagroup.com

SPRING 04 FIRECALL

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FOREWORD

Honorary Secretary’s

FOREWORD elcome readers to our spring 2019 issue of Firecall, taking a look at what has been another very busy few months for the Dublin Fire Brigade and Our Sports and Social Club.

The St Patrick’s Day celebrations were once again a great success, with the DFB Pipe Band as always providing a central focus as representatives of our brigade, but I would also like to thank all DFB members who took part in organising the weekend’s schedule and who helped make our firefighting colleagues from overseas feel so welcome throughout.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Terry Kearney retired after 39 years of service at the start of March, and other notable retirees include Dave “Fester” Larkin, who retired after 32 years of service in February, Brian Campion and Paddy Dunne, both after 38 years of service, Ben O’Neill after 33 years of service, and Declan Sheehan after 32 years.

I wish them all the best.

With CFO Dennis Keeley now officially at the head of our service, I would like to extend my congratulations, as well as my thanks for sharing his vision for the future of the Dublin Fire Brigade in this issue.

Also in this issue, former NYFD firefighter Tiernach Cassidy tells his incredible story of survival during the 9/11 terror attacks, and I would like to extend my gratitude to him for sharing what must have been an unimaginably difficult experience, while A Watch at HQ are our profiled station.

I would also like to thank Lord Mayor Nial Ring for sharing his thoughts on the Dublin Fire Brigade. He has shown great commitment to his relationship with the DFB, and I would like to thank him for taking the time to talk to us and for his continuing efforts to highlight the work we do.

Finally, check out our international profile, taking a look at North Lauderdale in Florida. We were delighted to receive them as guests over the St Patrick’s weekend, and look forward to seeing them again soon.

Enjoy the read,

Dan Fynes

DAN FYNES

A friendly reminder to order your new ID card by emailing idcards@dbfssc.ie with an attached headshot (on a neutral background), your name, pay number, station watch and location.

SPRING 2019

FIRECALL OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF DUBLIN FIRE, AMBULANCE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

A new era CFO DENNIS KEELEY ON

HIS VISION FOR THE DFB

A DAY TO REMEMBER DFB AND THE ST PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATIONS

FIRECALL SPRING

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If you smell gas at home...

• Open windows and doors • Don’t smoke or use a naked flame • Don’t unplug or switch anything electrical on or off • Turn off the gas at the meter • Then, no matter who your gas supplier is, call our 24 hour emergency service

1850 20 50 50

Don’t use a phone in the immediate area of the leak, use a neighbour’s or call from outside. If you can’t get through, call 999 or 112. In the interests of public safety all emergency calls are recorded.

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SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB UPDATE WELCOME NEW MEMBERS On behalf of the Club, I would like to welcome all of our new members from the last Firefighter and ESC recruit classes respectively. While welcoming one group of members, I would like to wish all of our newly retired members a long and healthy retirement. We thank you for your support throughout your career, and we look forward to celebrating your membership at our next retirement function.

ST PATRICK’S DAY THANKS The first few months of the year are usually relatively quiet for the club in the run up to St Patrick’s Day. This year has not quite followed usual patterns. Over the St Patricks period, we hosted many visitors from all over the world and I would like to thank all who took part in the celebrations. Your participation added to what was a great weekend for all.

TRIP TO SOUTHAMPTON Final preparations are in place for the club’s first trip away in many years. On July 3rd a representative group of 30 members of the DFBSSC will travel to Southampton to take part in their 4th of July parade. I hope that it is the first of many to come.

SUMMER WATCH NIGHTS We are pleased to announce the return of our summer watch nights. The watch nights out will take place every Thursday in "The Church" on Jervis Street during the month of June and posters will be in all stations as well as our social media platforms.

A Watch: June 6; D Watch: June 13; C Watch: June 20; B Watch: June 27

MONTHLY RAFFLE PRIZE WINNERS

SPORTS AND SOCIALCLUB

A look at what’s upcoming for members of the Dublin Fire Brigade Sports and Social Club (DFBSSC).

B Molloy B8 B Kelly CERCC D Hussey D4 N Cusker A2

We see the return of our monthly draws and our winners are below. The monthly draws are an initiative proving very popular amongst members and will continue for the rest of the year, congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to the subcommittee who organise it all.

APRIL 2019

DECEMBER 2018

Fitbit S Clarke A8 D Fowler D4 N Quinn C9 P O’Neill B13 A McCann A3

€100 Restaurant Voucher P McElroy B9 S O’Reilly A5 P Hendricken A4 P Lambert OBI N Hurley CHQ

JANUARY 2019 €100 Topaz Voucher T Butler CHQ D McEvoy AHQ K Mason A7 A Dunphy A2 N Tier D1

FEBRUARY 2019 €100 Ticketmaster Voucher J Ennis CHQ C Watson B12 B Morrissey D4 J McCormack B1 B Murray B4

€100 Restaurant Voucher N Coleman B1 D McArdle AHQ F Brennan A6 K Reddington A6 S Walsh B7

MAY 2019

SPORT This year we will try to promote the sporting side of the club, so if you have any reasonable suggestions how to get members out and active please contact a member of the committee.

I would like to thank all our members for their continuing support and if they have any suggestions or recommendations as to how we might improve things, please contact a member of the committee or drop us a message through our website.

MARCH 2019

As we move towards the busy time of the year please remember, all grant applications (or enquiries) to be made through our website- dfbssc.ie, and they will be raised at our next meeting.

€100 Tayto Park Voucher P Gibney OBI

Regards, Dan.

FIRECALL SPRING

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Stay Afloat – Stay in Contact ‘Before you go afloat, check weather and tides. If unsuitable, or if in any doubt cancel your trip and stay safe.’

• Plan your trip carefully and never go out alone • Let someone ashore know where you are going and when to expect you back • Carry a means of communication for raising the alarm should you get into difficulty (e.g. VHF Radio, PLB) • Check the Safety on the Water website for advice and the full range of safety guidelines

Never ever swim alone

In an emergency, call 112/999 and ask for the Coast Guard

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26/04/2019 24/04/2019 14:32 12:48

DFB IN BRIEF

DFB

A recap of Dublin Fire Brigade news and events over the past few weeks and months.

Training with Irish Rail as part of our RTC Instructors course.

Dun Laoghaire and Tara Street stations said goodbye to FF/P Dave “Fester” Larkin on his retirement after 32 years of service in February.

Crews from Dolphin’s Barn, HQ and Donnybrook attending an RTC in January.

The OBI hosts scenarios for advanced paramedic students from DFB & NAS as part of their UCDcems curriculum.

Rathfarnham FF/P Ben O’Neill said farewell to his colleagues as he retired at the start of April after 33 years with the DFB. Phibsboro Fire Station teamed up with Garda Traffic and the RSA to hand out free high-vis vests and reflectors as part of a road safety initiative.

Extinguishing a car fire in Balbriggan.

The first DFB baby of 2019 arrived on New Year’s Day when a father delivered his partner’s baby with guidance from our controllers over the phone.

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DFB IN BRIEF

C Watch from HQ and Dolphin’s Barn training with Transdev Ireland on Luas trams at the Red Cow depot.

Phibsboro D Watch said farewell to Firefighter/Paramedic Brian Campion, who retired after 38 years of service in March.

Firefighters from North Strand and HQ fought a well-developed fire in a domestic property in Clontarf in January. The property was extensively damaged, with one person transported to hospital, but the BA team rescued this dog.

Firefighters from Swords and Kilbarrack wear BA equipment at a fire on an agricultural site off the Malahide Road.

Phibsboro also saw FF/P Paddy Dunne retire in March, having joined the DFB in 1981 and serving at the station since 1984.

Last day of duty for firefighter Declan Sheehan after 32 years of service. Dec joined Dun Laoghaire Fire Brigade in 1987 before the amalgamation with DFB in 1994. He finished on B Watch.

Firefighter/paramedics from several stations attended an RTC on the Kilakee Road near the Hellfire Club in January.

Seat belts saved the lives of all five occupants.

6 crews and a senior officer responded to a chemical incident in Swords in January, with firefighters working in conjunction with onsite professionals to resolve the situation.

Firefighter/Swiftwater Rescue Technicians from HQ rescue a male from the Liffey at Customs House/ North Wall Quay in February.

Firefighters undergoing a Breathing Apparatus refresher course.

Firefighters using foam at a smouldering fire in Shackleton Park, Lucan.

Dublin GAA high-performance manager Dr Bryan Cullen opened the refurbished gym at HQ at the end of March.

Dolphin’s Barn FF/Ps training on air bags and ‘stab-fast’ stabilisation equipment for use at RTCs. Class ERCC/1 2019, the latest class of Emergency Service Controllers, passed out in mid-March at a ceremony at the OBI.

Firefighter/paramedics look on after using cutting equipment to free and treat a person in an RTC outside the Aerodrome Business Park.

Responding to a HazMat incident at the Department of Health on Baggot Street in early March, when a suspicious substance was delivered to the building.

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DFB IN BRIEF

Facebook “f ” Logo

CMYK / .eps

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CMYK / .eps

@DubFireBrigade Our two new Hyundai Tucson 4x4 vehicles, to be called on for use in adverse weather conditions such as snow and ice and for difficult to access areas such as hilly terrain during gorse fire.

Training drivers and operators on our new 30 metre hydraulic turntable ladders.

Fire engines from Tara Street and a rescue tender from Phibsboro attend a truck versus bridge collision at Amiens Street in March.

The new Compartment Fire Behaviour Training (CFBT) Instructors who completed their cross-border course with NIFRS and DFB students and instructors.

Our new Instructors in Tactical Ventilation and Flow Path Management completed their course in April.

A Finglas crew extinguishes a caravan fire on the Cappagh Road.

Participants in our Compartment Fire Behaviour Training Instructors course in our training centre.

A Kilbarrack fire and ambulance crew attend the unusual scene of a car versus house collision.

Congratulations to FF/Ps Andy Rogers and Brian Carrick who won Best Rauma Team at the Rescue Org Ireland national competition in April.

Teaching Lord Mayor Nial Ring, Councillor Alison Gilliland and staff at the Mansion House CPR in March.

Firefighter/Paramedic and Pipe Band member Paul Keyes served his last shift on January 8, as he leaves the ranks of DFB to take up the role of Assistant Chief Fire Officer with Kildare Fire.

A Finglas crew fight a car fire in early January.

Phibsboro and Tara Street firefighters at a house fire on the North Circular Road in March.

Suction training for Dolphin’s Barn crews in January.

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We were deeply saddened to hear of the death of SO “Tokyo” Joe Brennan, an inspiration and a gentleman. He will be missed throughout DFB and our thoughts are with his family.

FIRECALL SPRING

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DFB CYCLING CLUB

A CHANGE OF GEAR The new cycling club jersey.

Trying out the new gear at the OBI.

Dublin Fire Brigade Cycling Club has a new look.

D

ublin Fire Brigade Cycling Club (DFBCC) has got a new look for 2019. The club’s newly designed cycling gear (by Dave O’Toole) was launched at an event at The O’Brien Institute Training Centre in February. The revamp comes on foot of a new committee coming on board to rejuvenate the club and expand the membership. Initial efforts have seen an increase in numbers to more than 110 from a starting point of 68.

The DFBCC presented a framed club jersey to Brigade Training Officer Brendan Carroll outside the OBI, with a photo shoot courtesy of DFB firefighter Trevor Hunt.

The group had a short cycle to spin the legs out to Howth along the flat coastal route, with some taking the more difficult option up past the

summit and down to the village. There, they had a swift coffee break before heading back to the OBI. This kind of event, along with a calendar of events at home and abroad, has been planned to attract new members and to encourage the existing membership. Continuous training and social spins will take place through the year. “The emphasis is on improving the health and well-being of our members and to encourage inclusivity amongst our colleagues through cycling, as a sport and a social platform.

It is extremely apt, considering how physical the firefighter’s job is,” Brendan Lodola said.

DFB Cycling Club also launched its own sportive (a cycle ride) called ‘Staying In The Saddle For Prostate Cancer’ with the support of CFO Dennis Keeley. Involving 50Km and 115Km routes, the sportive is in aid of Beaumont Hospital Foundation and The Irish Cancer Society’s Action Prostate Cancer. “Our goal is also

Setting out to Howth for a spin.

to raise awareness for men’s health in Ireland,” said Brendan. Our next issue will detail the sportive and its fundraising achievements.

This was the first time the club had registered an event with Cycling Ireland, giving exposure to over 50,000 cyclists in Ireland alone, and it is hoped it will grow the DFBCC Sportive into the future.

There were free DFBCC Sportive Jerseys up for grabs for the first 50 registrations, but these have already been claimed as the club surpassed that number very quickly.

FIRECALL SPRING

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CFO DENNIS KEELEY

A NEW ERA

CFO Dennis Keeley talks to Adam Hyland about the changes faced by the DFB and the great work of all its personnel.

“

R

eflecting on my experiences over the last 33 years as a proud member of the Dublin Fire Brigade, there have been a lot of changes,” new Chief Fire Officer Dennis Keeley tells me. “But looking forward, I expect the pace of change will likely accelerate in the next decade, we’ll see a developing City and County, new technology and inventions bringing even greater opportunities and changes.

I see one of my roles as providing a base for a very agile brigade that can

adapt to change quickly, that provides a safer environment for firefighters and the public, and a service that takes advantage of technology, and continues to develop the skillsets of its personnel.”

Providing that base for change is just one of the roles CFO Keeley will focus on as he officially becomes the head of the Dublin Fire Brigade, having acted as CFO since the retirement of Pat Fleming in July of last year.

“It’s a very challenging role,” he tells me. “The DFB is an organisation steeped in history and with its own distinctive culture. I am honoured to

CFO Dennis Keeley.

take on the position of CFO, building on the work of previous Chiefs and previous senior management who have steered the DFB over generations. I believe the decisions made over the years have held the DFB in very good stead – both strategically and operationally. I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the great work of the previous CFO Pat Fleming and wish him and his wife Lorna every happiness in his retirement.”

CAREER CFO Keeley joined the fire service in 1986 and was first stationed at HQ before transferring to a number of different stations on both the north and south sides of the city. After a number of years attached to B Watch Donnybrook, he was promoted in 2001, which saw him on the move again, operating within the ERCC and HQ as a Sub Officer and

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CFO DENNIS KEELEY later as Station Officer before being promoted in 2009 as a District Officer at Phibsboro Station. In 2013, Dennis returned to HQ following promotion to Assistant Chief Fire Officer.

During this time, he developed a valuable expertise in emergency management, and spent a number of years seconded to what was then the Department of Environment, working on the rollout of the Framework for Emergency Management. His work in this area also took on an international context as he was involved in the development of the European Civil Protection model, and had the opportunity to train in UN Disaster Assessment Coordination. He also acquired an MSc in Emergency Management in DCU and a Degree in Business with IT Carlow.

“During this secondment I also had the opportunity to attend training of both the EU and UN roles,” he tells me.

“I also had the opportunity to respond to a number of international emergency missions – for example in 2010, flooding in Pakistan, and then in the same year at an environmental mission in Ukraine.”

Though time limitations have restricted CFO Keeley’s participation with the EU and UN, it has led to his involvement in and participation with a number of European emergency response agencies, working in partnership with them to provide operational management training under the banner of civil protection.

He was instrumental in bringing this Operational Management course to the DFB Training Centre.

“That course brings an international profile to our training centre, and we hope to continue that, further raising its status,” he says. “The course is highprofile, a flagship course under civil protection, and it makes it possible for people – DFB personnel and others to be involved and develop their own expertise around this area.”

CFO Keeley is keen for DFB members to consider the course, in order to further improve their skillsets.

“It prepares our Firefighters and Officers not only for international missions but in many other aspects

of crisis management. If Ireland was ever required to seek International assistance, these people would become liaison officers with civil protection.”

DEVELOPMENT That view towards improving skillsets and ability is at the core of what CFO Keeley sees as the development of the Dublin Fire Brigade, and something which requires cooperation and partnership across the board.

“We are fortunate to have a very bright, well-educated and motivated workforce. It is important that all our personnel feel a part of shaping our future, and I would like to develop that so all personnel feel they can have a bigger role to play, and a bigger say,” he tells me, and emphasises the need to adapt to and utilise new technologies.

“We are at a crossroads in terms of the technological developments that are at a very critical point,” CFO Keeley says. “We will introduce the new National Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system along with the National digital (TETRA) radio system that will come online in the very near future.

A lot of our current infrastructure is nearing end of life, the current processes and technology is restricted in development, but we are at a very good point in the development of the DFB whereby automation software and hardware are developing. We also have our e-learning package currently being rolled out, and we see that as a huge advantage for everybody, enabling us to efficiently capture the training records and better manage and monitor the competencies of our crews.

“A lot of technological enhancements have been converged, which I believe will see the DFB advance technologywise, and I would like to be at the forefront of that. Fundamentally, what I hope it brings is an ability

to do things more cleverly, to have more transparency – for everybody.

The challenge is that we avoid using technology for technology’s sake, ensuring that it has value, a purpose and use.

“That ranges from both back-office systems – dispatch systems, radio systems, etc – to the equipment on the ground. We are continuously looking at our fleet of vehicles, the technology we need for operations. There are huge advances in this area and it is something I would like to harness. It is all with the primary purpose of making the role of a firefighter safer, in every aspect. My role is to steer that, oversee various functions our senior management are involved in, trying to assure that we are all going in the same direction.”

When asked how he sees the DFB changing over the next ten years, CFO Keeley also mentions infrastructural and logistical changes.

“Our vehicles and stations are a key focus for me in terms of modernisation, and we are definitely looking at improvements,” he tells me. “Some of our stations need modernising. In the very near future we need a new station in North Strand, with architects looking into the construction of a new station, and we are also looking at the possibility of rebuilding Dolphin’s Barn on their existing site.

“We are also looking at our garage workshop and stores area, with the likelihood of moving from that area to an alternative site, either in Tallaght or North Strand, so we have architects looking into this too. These are all big projects.

“We also took delivery of three new tenders in April, and we are monitoring the requirement for additions or replacements to the fleet, but parallel with that, we have a comprehensive updating process in place. We have a

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CFO DENNIS KEELEY program to identify vehicles suitable for refurbishment, and we invest in these with our program for upgrading existing vehicles. We are also getting three new EMS vehicles this year. We have a very large fleet and our garage, workshop and stores staff work very hard in maintaining those vehicles, so it is a constant challenge.”

GROWING WITH THE CITY The rapid growth of Dublin city presents a significant challenge, CFO Keeley tells me, but he is confident the DFB can not only continue to provide the high-quality service needed, but play an integral role in the city’s development.

“The city’s development is to be welcomed and we must consider what challenge this may bring for us as a Brigade. How we provide that service to the city and county, how we maintain our standards for response, how we deliver all of that with efficiency as a modern, efficient and safe brigade - those are the real challenges.

“It’s a city that is growing out as well as upwards, and the vision I have is to take a holistic view of the city and county of Dublin, and the developments taking place. We recognise that Dublin has a range of infrastructural projects unfolding such as the children’s hospital and the Metro – and we will see the DFB at the forefront of discussions on that.”

He continues: “When you encompass that with the need for fleet maintenance, building stock, and the likelihood of additional stations into the future – maximising the response model in terms of location – those are big decisions, and are built upon a very solid base of current station locations that were decided on many years ago.

“There is a lot of work going on in terms of future-proofing the brigade to meet the demands of a city that is growing, and the most likely outcome is that there will be a need for more stations into the future. How that will be delivered and what the actual model will look like is still under discussion, but I would like to think that the evolution of that will be done in partnership with the staff groups, trade unions and working groups.

“My mantra would be partnership,” he adds, “in order to successfully deliver a modern and efficient fire service.

That evolution should happen with and fully involve all staff, the people at the coalface, and that will be a big part of how I would like to move forward, maintaining and developing relationships with the trade unions and staff.”

He adds: “I also want to review diversity and inclusion issues across the brigade with a specific focus on gender equality. I believe we need to

CFO Keeley marching with the DFB during the St Patrick’s Day parade.

acknowledge, embrace and reflect the diversity of a modern society in Dublin and Ireland.”

With the city growing upwards, as CFO Keeley mentions, comes further challenges presented by the growing number of high-rise buildings that need to be kept safe. The Grenfell disaster in London is still in peoples’ minds.

“Following the Grenfell tragedy, it is likely that there will be changes and revisions of fire safety in terms of both legislation and operations,” he tells me. “We are directly engaged with our colleagues in the Fire service, particularly Brigades in the UK, and have held workshops with a number of their brigades looking at the challenges of high-rise and the lessons learned in procedures and tactics.

“We also have several working groups following on from the Metro fire in Ballymun looking at the lessons learned, and these groups are working hard to ensure that all elements are developed to complement each other. In addition, we are developing proposals for training for high-rise.

“There are also developments in operational intelligence, we are engaged in pre-fire planning and working in partnership with staff to develop our operational intelligence unit, which will with an improved structure capture the risk profiles of station areas to help identify and manage the risks.”

Fire safety in general is also something CFO Keeley must continue to promote through his position.

“One of my roles as I see it is to constantly use my position to drive home the fire safety message at every opportunity. We have a very well received social media presence that strikes a good balance between the delivery of the fire safety message and humour, with a visual element that attracts people.

“We are very conscious of the brand and the esteem that DFB maintains with the citizens of Dublin, but we have to protect that and not take it for granted. Fundamentally, our message is a very serious one, to do with fire safety. The objective must be to try to reach all members of the community

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CFO DENNIS KEELEY with our fire safety message, which is challenging, but through our social media, our community fire safety and fire prevention work, that is a big focus.”

CFO Keeley returns to the subject of change, the challenges this will bring, and how the DFB is working to improve the lives of its members.

“There has been an evolution in the perception and delivery of the traditional fire service that just deals with fires,” he says. “We have moved on a lot from that. We are still a fire and rescue service but also an EMS service, and within that title we provide a range of roles that a modern society requires. Some DFB functions are statutory requirements, others are statutorily-enabled, a number are provided in accordance with national policy or by agreement/arrangement with those who hold relevant statutory responsibilities. For example, we are involved in high-line rescue, swift water rescue and off- shore response, we are involved in the aftermath of rail accidents and Road traffic collisions.

“That too will have to evolve in the next ten years. How we fight fires, what technology will bring us in terms of our equipment, will require adaption from everybody. The Metro underground project, as an example, will present a new challenge, but as a brigade, we faced a new challenge with the Port Tunnel, and we developed procedures, trained people, and put in place a response model.

“As a modern, developing capital city, these challenges will continue, and we will have to evolve in terms of our tactics, response models, equipment, how we do things.

“Certainly, when I look back over my 33 years of service, it is a very different brigade now than it was back then. It is very difficult to look into the future and know what to expect, but I see technology and other advancements such as our drones and the work we are doing in research and development, in clothing technology, our understanding of the continuous evolution of developments in health and safety of our personnel as very important.”

CFO Keeley receives a presentation from Tasmania Fire Service on St Patrick’s Day.

Given his position regarding emergency management, CFO Keeley is also keen to point out that the DFB is also playing a very active part in crisis management and emergency management. “That is another skillset to master, and we are looking at supporting the city in terms of emergency shelter, evacuation centres, with requirements in place for on-site emergency coordination centres. We have people trained for this, so overall, the range of services we provide now is more diverse than it was, and having the agility we have allows us to provide all of these services in an efficient way.”

CFO Keeley adds: “The development of our ambulance service in terms of skillsets and crew abilities is a magnificent feat, certainly very different to what I experienced as a firefighter/paramedic, and should not be underestimated, but achieving and maintaining these skills poses a specific challenge in terms of training requirements.”

On the subject of ambulances, I ask CFO Keeley about the ongoing controversial discussion over the future of the service as part of the DFB. “What I am clear on is that all parties acknowledge that DFB will continue to provide an Ambulance service,” he tells me. “All parties have acknowledged that the service provided by DFB in terms of Ambulance provision, both historically and today, is a valuable service, and it is clear to me that DFB

will continue to maintain and manage its Ambulance service. The question of what that service looks like are currently part of ongoing negotiations, which are at a very critical phase. I am very supportive of and recognise the challenges for operational crews and control room staff at the moment, so we are hoping for a resolution and clarity on this issue.”

GIVING CREDIT As the new CFO, Dennis Keeley is also keen to get his message across to all DFB members.

“As a serving firefighter who has gone through the ranks and achieved the very honourable position of CFO, I want to acknowledge the commitment and good work of all of our staff on a daily basis. It isn’t always acknowledged, because given the scale of the organisation it isn’t always possible to reach out, but it certainly isn’t underestimated. Management are very appreciative of the great work being done by all personnel in the brigade, the valuable work of not only our frontline operational staff but also the fire-prevention, administration, training, technical and workshop staff who together keep the DFB functioning every day.

“We are very mindful of the difficult work being done on a daily basis and the impact both physically and mentally on our staff because I know it can be very challenging at times.”

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26/04/2019 07/03/2019 14:33 16:26

ST PATRICK’S DAY

T Raising the flag.

A Day

TO REMEMBER St Patrick’s Day proved to be another great experience for DFB members and visiting firefighters alike.

he Dublin Fire Brigade once again took centre stage for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations, with the Pipe Band leading the way as members of the Brigade represented the Guard of Honour for Lord Mayor Nial Ring.

With all members in full uniform, they presented an eye-catching spectacle for the 500,000 people lining the route on what was a busy but very enjoyable day.

Of course, activities started long before the parade, with a huge amount of preparation going into the event, and enormous thanks must go out to all involved in its organisation.

The DFB played host to a large number of firefighters from overseas over the weekend, with many staying at the OBI Training Centre in Marino, and a number of these were treated to a tour of the facilities and the museum by Pipe Band Major Damien Fynes and Museum Curator Paul Hand on the day before St Patrick’s Day. As well as firefighters from Plantation, Margate and North Lauderdale in Florida, guests from Southampton, New York, London and Tasmania were also hosted, while visitors shown around the OBI included “The Chicago Ladies” from the Naperville and Bolingbrook areas of the city, Ryan Orseth from the Central Pierce Fire Department in Washington State, and Scott Knolton from Montgomery County, Tennessee.

St Patrick’s Day itself thankfully enjoyed better weather than the

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ST PATRICK’S DAY

previous few days, and all DFB personnel and guests set out on a busy day with the sun overhead.

The first stop was Phibsboro Fire Station, and after the marching body, honour guard and pipe band had breakfast, the national flag was raised with a roll call of all members who have passed away in the past year.

Gifts were also presented to CFO Dennis Keeley by representatives of the visiting fire departments, before everybody formed up and began

the march out through the gates of No.3 and on to the parade start line, where Lord Mayor Nial Ring greeted the group.

The DFB marching body was met enthusiastically along the entire route, and judging by the pictures, enjoyed the attention as much as the crowds enjoyed the spectacle.

The Pipe Band didn’t stop at the finishing line, instead continuing their tradition of playing a few tunes and getting the crowds involved later in DTwo.

It was at DTwo on Harcourt Street where everyone met up for some well-deserved pints and a chance to catch up with colleagues and visitors to talk about the day and to plan future endeavours.

For DFB members, it was another successful St Patrick’s Day, and for overseas visitors, the experience was hugely enjoyable.

Bill McGrath, Battalion Leader with North Lauderdale Fire Rescue, who are featured elsewhere in this issue, said that for him, it was a memorable experience.

“We had such a great time and the whole experience showed the true

International firefighters assemble.

CFO Dennis Keeley receives a gift from Margate Coconut Creek, Florida Fire Department.

CFO Dennis Keeley receives a gift from Plantation, Florida Fire Department.

S/OFFs Dan Fynes and Liam Wilson with the international visitors.

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ST PATRICK’S DAY

Retired DO and Drum Major Damian Fynes salutes the flag.

F/F Geoff Tracey with DFB historian Las Fallon.

DFB enter the city centre.

F/Fs Ed Walsh and Gary Mason.

brotherhood of the fire service,” he told me. “The DFB were incredible.

They were so hospitable, and we vowed there and then that we would be back next year. In fact, the trip is already planned.

“Walking in the Parade was amazing. I mean, we have parades, but that was on a different level. It was wonderful – the DFB personnel were great in organising what we could do, and made sure that we could not just march, but really enjoy the march. They were great.”

FF/P Michael Houghton, also of the North Lauderdale Fire Service, said: “What an amazing experience it was. This was a once in a lifetime

opportunity for a lot of us. I’ve gained memories on this trip that I will keep forever. The Dublin Fire Brigade treated us like family and welcomed us with open arms. The Brotherhood is strong!”

FF/P Charlie Gandia of Margate Fire & Rescue said: “What an amazing privilege! Seeing the beauty and history that Ireland had to offer, coupled with the experience of marching in the St Patrick’s

Day Parade with the Dublin Fire Brigade truly left a mark in my memory forever. That is the type of fellowship I could never forget.”

Dave Radzivill, a Firefighter/ Driver Engineer from Plantation Fire Department in Florida, said: “The members of Dublin Fire Brigade were awesome. Their kindness and hospitality made me feel like a part of their organisation.

From the early morning assembly to

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the social gathering following the parade, and along the entire way in between, I felt honoured to be a part of such an amazing group, and privileged to have been given the opportunity to participate alongside them. The members of the DFB were the exclamation point at the end of an amazing day in Dublin!”

Iraldo Curbelo, EMS Battalion Chief with Plantation Fire Department, was also full of praise, saying: “Magnificent experience, a must-do bucket list for all fi refi ghters! I felt extremely proud to represent the Plantation Fire Department, our city, state and the

United States of America, and to participate alongside the Dublin Fire Brigade. Many thanks to the DFB for their hospitality and accommodations. I made lifelong friends.”

Once again, many thanks to all who took part in the day and to all those who helped organise every aspect of the weekend.

DFB’s involvement in the St Patrick’s Day Parade was another great success, and this is down to the hard work and dedication of those who go above and beyond to ensure everything goes to plan and that all involved enjoy being part of it.

Feeling the love of the crowd.

Tasmania Fire Service members.

Visiting fire departments from North Lauderdale, Plantation, Southampton and Tasmania.

The Southampton crew.

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COMMERCIAL FEATURE

THE ONE-STOP FUEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Fuelling Technology’s expertise means they can provide a crucial fuel dispensing and management service to the DFB

B

ased in Dublin 20, Fuelling Technology are market leaders in the provision of fuel management solutions to the commercial transport industry.

“We provide commercial fuel management solutions throughout Europe to the emergency services, critical facilities, and commercial transport industries,” explains Managing Director Shane Pemberton. “We supply and install fuel management systems, fuel pumps, bulk storage tanks, associated monitoring systems, pipework and more, either individually or as turn-key packages. Our product range is robust, reliable and fit for purpose, and is backed up by our highly-qualified and friendly support team.”

Fuelling Technology are a privatelyowned company staffed by people with many years of experience of the commercial vehicle re fuelling industry. Offering reliable products and versatile, uncomplicated systems, Fuelling Technology provide a complete refuelling facility. Their web-based fuel management software (FMO) provides a true multi-user environment which is simple to use and can be accessed on the go. Real-time information regarding all fuel usage can be transmitted automatically to help improve efficiency of vehicles and drivers and prevent theft and stock loss through leakage or short deliveries.

It’s undoubtedly this emphasis on simple, efficient and reliable solutions that led to the company’s successful and growing relationship with Dublin Fire Brigade.

“Fuelling Technology have worked very closely with DFB to provide a onestop comprehensive fuel dispensing and management system. This solution has enabled DFB to access and control our fuel stocks using real time data. Fuel supplies are critical to the provision of emergency services and Fuelling Technology provide a comprehensive back up and support service which ensures our fuel dispensing systems are fully operational at all times. DFB highly value the professional and comprehensive service provided by Fuelling Technology, which guarantees our fleet of emergency vehicles are available to respond to emergency incidents.” - John Guilfoyle, Third Officer, Dublin Fire Brigade The relationship between Fuelling Technology and DFB has been very successful and continues to grow year on year.

“With all DFB properties operating 24/7/365, it is vital that all systems are capable of operating on this basis.

Fuelling Technology provide DFB

with a fuelling dispensing system that is maintained to an extremely high standard. At all times, Fuelling Technology respond to call outs for emergency repairs in a fast and expedient manner, with all issues resolved to a satisfactory time and standard. DFB Property Maintenance Department can rely on Fuelling Technology at all times to provide a professional service and we hope to continue working together for the foreseeable future and would highly recommend the service they provide.”

- Andy Kavanagh, Property Maintenance Manager, Dublin Fire Brigade Fuelling Technology deliver quality through experience, supporting an enviable customer base. They continue to grow from strength to strength in a challenging and dynamic market place without compromising on quality of service.

“It’s about quality of service, reliability of product and putting the customers interests first,” Pemberton explains. “This is the key to our success.”

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DFB PIPE BAND

From within

THE CIRCLE Dublin Fire Brigade Pipe Band Major Mark Toner reviews recent activities.

A

s always with DFBPB, the winter months and early part of the year are given over to preparations for St Patrick’s Day. This year was no different, and a huge amount of effort was put in by our playing members to help improve their personal playing and overall band ensemble playing. Its’ not just about the tunes though - over the winter months instruments need to be maintained, with selection and bedding in of new chanter and drone reeds, new pipe bags and cords, drum heads and carriages.

The preparations paid off on 17th March, with the band providing a really good sound as we led the country’s premier St Patrick’s Day parade down O’Connell street. A cold start

threatened to flatten the sound initially, but this was soon replaced by sunshine by the time the band started to play.

We were once again joined by a number of visiting international firefighters from the US, New Zealand, Tasmania and the UK, along with a large contingent of our own members from DFB sports and Social Club and our retired members. F/F Ger Corcoran ensured that the band’s colour party section was parade-ready as always. The playing started early with a lament, followed by drum roll and Amhrán na bhFiann as the entire firefighter contingent took part in the now annual band memorial for members of DFB who passed away within the previous year, followed by the DFB national colours ceremony at NO.3 district station.

The parade starts in earnest for us then, as we march out of NO. 3 station playing, heading towards the start of the main parade. The standard

Keeping the beat going after the parade.

of playing continued throughout the parade until we finally finished and fell out at Harcourt St, with the band then joining the entire DFB contingent for the parade after-party.

Once again, we entertained our guests with a solid 40-minute performance - no mean feat after playing since 0900hrs! This time around it was no ordinary performance though. Our drum corps, led by leading tip Alan Corcoran, performed “Bronko’s Salute” for the first time. This drum salute was composed especially for the band by our drumming instructor, Ciarán Mordaunt, in memory of a good friend of DFBPB, F/F Durrell Pearsall – FDNY. The drum corps certainly did it justice, as was evidenced by the huge applause from the crowd. The day ended well with only one reported casualty as our mascot Cú had to go accident sick due to injury!

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DFB PIPE BAND

The DFB Pipe Band tunes up at Phibsboro Fire Station.

The Pipe Band marches towards the city centre on St Patrick’s Day. DFB mascot Cu takes a wellearned break.

The Pipe Band with Lord Mayor Nial Ring at the St Patrick’s Day Parade.

The normal work of the band continued after the festivities, providing services as part of the recent ESC passout and a number of retired members’ funerals. Already a large number of requests have been received by the band for engagements throughout the summer and some even into next year.

Efforts and preparations were also centred towards a trip to Belgium at the

end of May, where the band had been requested to play at a number of highprofile ceremonies and join a group of international firefighters in taking part in WW2 commemorations.

We couldn’t carry out all these functions without the support of members and associated members and supporters to whom we are very grateful.

GRMA! Nor indeed could we continue to grow and represent DFB without new band recruits coming through the ranks and giving up their time to learn a new skill and instrument and prepare to carry the tradition forward. We have a number of student pipers and drummers coming through the ranks who hopefully will be well up and playing by the time St Patrick’s Day comes around again.

So, if you think you have what it takes to become a band member, why not come along to the OBI any Monday night from 1930hrs onwards and earn the right to wear the band’s crest on your shoulder! Beginners are very welcome – and don’t worry, musical ability is not necessary, you’ll be thought and provided with eveything you need. Our door is never closed, so if you are a previous member and find yourself with a little more time than before, we’ll be glad to have you back.

The band can be reached at any time through any band member or by email at dfbpbsec@gmail.com or via any of our social media pages.

It’s your band!

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TIERNACH CASSIDY

A FIREFIGHTER’S STORY

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TIERNACH CASSIDY

Former FDNY firefighter Tiernach Cassidy talks to Adam Hyland about surviving 9/11, honouring his colleagues and sharing his experiences.

M

ost of us can recall where we were when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001, but for FDNY firefighter Tiernach Cassidy, the memories of that fateful day will stay with him forever.

Stationed in downtown Manhattan, he witnessed the tragic events of the day unfold, and was one of only a handful of survivors from a squad that rushed to help as the Towers crashed to the ground.

Tiernach was part of Engine 3 in Chelsea, Lower Manhattan, but due to an injury he had sustained on a previous call out, he was assigned to light duties closer to the World Trade Center on Lafayette Street, between Spring and Prince Street. That morning, he had just arrived to begin what he thought would be another normal day, when events ensured it would be anything but.

“I got to work at 8.30am that morning and started to head up to the roof to have my first cup of coffee,” he tells me.

“From the top of the building you could clearly see the World Trade Center, and it was a nice view to relax to before starting work. But that morning, the roof was packed with people. The first plane had just hit the North Tower. Everyone was asking: ‘What do we do?’ but we were told to stay where we were and await further instruction. We just didn’t know what had actually happened.

“Between us, looking back and forth from the rooftop to the TV in the fire house, we saw the second plane come in and hit the South Tower. At this point we all realised that this wasn’t an accident, we knew that this was an attack.”

With all available resources at 1st Division already sent to respond to the explosion in the North Tower, Tiernach

and his colleagues knew they needed to help and rushed down the stairs. When another six-man team boarded their fire truck, Tiernach and a few others jumped on too, and headed to the site.

“On our way, the first tower was coming down, and we actually drove through the first collapse cloud to get there,” Tiernach tells me. “I used to live in that part of Manhattan, so the whole way down there I was telling the guys that I knew where to go, that I knew the area like the back of my hand, but suddenly it was unrecognisable, so we parked the rigs on Liberty and Broadway, and we started to work in groups to try to find survivors, because we could hear mayday signals.”

Tiernach and his colleagues rescued the few injured firefighters they could find and took them back to Broadway, before making their way back to the site of devastation.

“It was then that the second tower started to collapse,” he recalls. “We were right under it at this point. I remember the pancaking sound, but it took a few seconds to realise what that was. It seemed like time froze, but when I looked at the guy I was with, a lieutenant called Danny, we both realised it was the tower coming down.

We ran back to our rig, he slid under it, and I opened all these compartment doors to build a little box for myself, to protect myself from whatever came down, and waited for the impact.

“After what seemed like forever, there was total silence, until all of a sudden, I started hearing the chirping of alarms.

These were the sounds that our helmets emitted if we stopped moving for 30

seconds. The noise was coming from all around me.

“When the dust settled, I realised that, miraculously, me and the guys with me were still alive, and I was able to make out objects in the distance. We got up and went back to work, trying to find our friends who we knew were in there.”

While the emergency services did their best to clear the city, and as civilians fled, for Tiernach the next few hours were spent helping crews put out fires and searching for his colleagues and other survivors.

“Myself and Danny found ourselves in the very centre of the collapse,” Tiernach tells me, “and we were both tied off with lifesaving ropes, taking turns going into holes and looking for people. As I was holding the rope taut, Danny signalled that he had found people, and it turned out that there were 13 survivors. He signalled for help and when the rescue squad came in with stretchers, it was remarkable that nobody needed them, because everybody was able to walk out. It was unbelievable to come out of that pile.

“When I reached my hand down to pull the second guy out of the hole, I recognised him. He was Mickey Cross, a friend of mine from before we both went into the fire department. All he came out with was a scratch on his nose, and the first thing he did was ask me for a cigarette. I was like: ‘Are you kidding me?’”

That initial success was sadly not to be repeated, much to Tiernach’s disappointment. “When we took those survivors out, I thought there would be hundreds more of them in the cavernous

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spaces of what was left of the World Trade Center. But there were none.

“In the immediate aftermath, just like in any accident, my first reaction is always to go and help. I saw it happen right in front of me, and I knew that hundreds of guys I worked with, and thousands of civilians working in the buildings, needed help, and in the back of my head, I assumed that almost everybody survived. I knew there would be a few fatalities, and a few injuries, but in my mind, I was thinking that there were so many people in there who needed help. ‘We are strong people, we will be ok,’ I was telling myself, because the reality was just incomprehensible.

“Of course, in the aftermath I was devastated to discover the amount of fatalities, but in the beginning, I was still thinking that if I just pulled back a rock, there would be 100 people sitting there saying ‘Oh thank god’. It didn’t work out like that.”

In total, 2,996 people lost their lives that day, including 72 police and 343 firefighters.

“Every fire house lost men,” Tiernach tells me. “From my own Fire House, Engine 3, we lost three guys from the truck, the chief and his aide, five good friends and colleagues. The fire house I was on duty with that day, lost almost everybody. The time that it happened meant there was a changeover of personnel. I would get into work at 8am, and the guys who would be finishing up on night duty would hang around and have breakfast, so we would have a double group in. When a major event like that happens, everybody wants to stay to help out, so not only did 20 Truck and Squad 18 lose their original six guys on the engine, but they had an additional six who had stayed and gone out with them. So, each squad lost 12 guys.”

BEFORE 9/11 Despite the tragic events of that day, Tiernach is adamant that he “couldn’t imagine doing anything else” in what he still considers “the greatest job in the world”. Being a firefighter was one of the only things he had ever wanted to do. “As a kid, I decided that I either

wanted to be a cowboy, an astronaut or a fireman. Those were my dreams,” he tells me. “I didn’t have the schooling to become an astronaut, and I can’t ride a horse, so I became a fireman.”

He had been working in the restaurant and bar scene, “just like any good Irish-American lad would do”, and had waited patiently for six years for his call up after passing the written exam, before he was eventually sworn in on May 17, 1998. He was assigned to the same neighbourhood where he had tended bar, and one of the first fires he attended was in the bar he had been working in. “I’d been working there so long I don’t think anybody believed I was due to join the Fire Department,” he says, “but when I walked in and the manager saw me, he said ‘Holy shit, it’s Tiernach’. He invited us all in for a drink after our shift.”

Engine 3 in Chelsea covers the area from 28th Street to 14th Street, but also goes city-wide as a high-rise unit, covering any building over 80 foot, so Tiernach gained a lot of experience responding to a variety of calls in a busy neighbourhood, but his job changed dramatically after the World Trade Center attacks.

GROUND ZERO On that first day, immediately after the attacks, Tiernach and his colleagues continued to search the area around the South Tower, without success, until reports came in to clear the area around Tower 7, which was on the verge of collapse. Following that, he continued to work through to 2am, when a relief squad was sent down.

“At first, I still had no thoughts of impending doom, because I thought we would find a large group of people alive,” Tiernach tells me. “After the first two weeks of digging and searching, people started talking about other scenarios, collapses at mines, and how long people could live without food and drink. But in the days that followed, reality started kicking in. Once we passed the point of no survival, we went on to recovery work, and that went on for a year or so after that.”

Crews altered between one month on operational duties and one month working at Ground Zero.

“I remember weeks after, the trucks would come in and dig out piles, and we were just looking for remains, just looking to give closure, to find some trace of a person. It is sad to think that we were just trying to find a piece or scrap, and thinking that was once a person you talked to. It really made you feel small.”

A PERMANENT REMINDER Tiernach says that his memories of that day will never fade, but he wanted to make a gesture to his fallen colleagues, and forge his own personal memorial to his friends at Engine 3. The result is a beautiful and poignant tattoo covering his entire back.

“After it went to a recovery effort, me and a lot of other active firefighters wanted some type of memorial to remember it by, so a bunch of us went to the local tattoo parlour, and walked in asking if we could get a group discount,” Tiernach tells me.

“Firefighters are cheap!”

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He continues: “For me, when I was on the roof of that building on Lafayette and saw that second plane come in and hit the South Tower, that image is still in my head, and I swear to God, I could feel the loss. To explain it is hard, but the emotion was so real. So that is what I put on my back – the towers, the smoke, an angel, and the names of the guys just from my firehouse, because unfortunately, I couldn’t fit everybody.

“It was therapeutic,” he says. “I went to, and still do go to counselling for this, and my counsellor said it was a form of pain therapy. Tattoos don’t feel good, if they did everybody would have one, but when I was getting this done, I don’t think I felt any pain at all. It took nine months from start to finish, going every two weeks, but I needed to do it, to remember and honour my friends.”

Tiernach is glad that he did it for another reason too. With regular sessions at the tattoo parlour, he became friendly with the receptionist, Christina. They are now married, with two children, Lucas, 15, and Isabelle, who is nine.

Once the recovery operation was wound down, the FDNY started to hire again in order to replenish its ranks, with a huge number of applicants looking to honour the city’s firefighters by taking

up the mantle, and Tiernach found himself in an unexpected position.

“I still felt like the new guy,” he says.

“I had only been in three years, there were guys with up to 25 years who I had listened to. But these new guys looked at anybody who had survived 9/11 as the senior guys. For a time, there was a lot of rebuilding and teaching the new guys the way I had been taught by the guys prior to me, which is how the fire department should be, and how it continues to be today. It was a learning experience, especially for guys like me, to take the new guys under our wing, and still make the job a great job to be in.”

THE IRISH CONNECTION As his name would suggest, Tiernach has a deep connection with Ireland, but in the past few years this has been strengthened by a surprising turn of events. Born in New York to Irish parents, as a child he moved to Dublin with his father for two and a half years before returning to the States, and until 1985, returned every summer to spend his holidays with his 18 uncles and aunts, and countless first cousins he likened to brothers and sisters.

It wasn’t until he was 17 when his mother revealed that he had an older brother in Ireland. “This is another crazy story all of its own,” Tiernach tells me. “My mother broke down one day and told me she had a baby when she was 19 or so. There always seemed to be a weight on her shoulders, but she never gave so much as hint about anything until that day.”

Having a child out of wedlock in 1950s Ireland meant Tiernach’s mother

had to give her baby up for adoption while she worked in a convent before being shipped off to America. It was there that she met her husband, and soon Tiernach arrived on the scene.

“I had no idea about my brother Gerry, who is 12 years older than me,” he says, “and I never thought he would track us down. It was funny: When I found out at 17, I wondered how many times had I passed him in the street when I was visiting Ireland? Did I ever meet him? Stuff like that.”

Years later in Ireland, Gerry traced his mother through adoption and church records, and relatives, before finally getting in touch with her via a third-party.

“They started out writing letters,” Tiernach tells me, “before we arranged to meet. I remember picking my mother up to meet him at the airport. There were hundreds of people coming through customs, and I immediately picked him out. We don’t have the same physical stature or anything, but just like that, we just knew who the other was. My mother says we are like two peas in a pod. Nobody out here can fathom the story.”

Tiernach and Gerry have been “trying to catch up as much as possible” ever since, he tells me, with Tiernach visiting Ireland as much as he can.

He transferred out of Engine 3 three years ago, moving out to the east end of Queens, “closer to home and a bit quieter than it was in the city”, before he left the FDNY on medical grounds. “As of last year, I am officially done,” he tells me, leaving him time to spend with his family, visit Ireland, and share his stories.

“It is definitely therapeutic to talk about it, and definitely don’t want to keep it bottled up,” he says. “I have plenty to tell and can go on for hours about what happened on 9/11, and. I would love to share my experience. The next time I am in Ireland, I would love to share my story with any fire service.

That would be an honour for me.”

If you would like to arrange for Tiernach to talk at a station about his time in the FDNY, contact the editor for details of his next visit.

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CYCLING TRIP

THE ITALIAN JOB

Part III

It is always the same story when a group of firefighters go on a cycling trip to Italy, so much to see and so little time to do everything, writes Brendan Lodola.

I

t’s been two years now since my last article about our cycling trip to Tuscany, the heart of the Italian countryside. We left this beautiful part of the world in 2016, refreshed from the hours of great banter and camaraderie with a group of great people, and exhilarated from being immersed into a haven of spectacular scenery. We had said goodbye to a favourite place in the world, but we knew we’d be back!

We were only home a couple of weeks when cycling firefighters began texting, saying how much they missed the whole experience already. It was time to start thinking about our next cycling adventure in 2018, The Italian Job Part III. I can’t continue without refreshing you, the people who read the last

article, and informing the people who have never been, of the wonders of Tuscany. A region of vineyards, cypresses, olives and ancient stone hamlets. Row upon row of vines stretched out on either side of us, soaking up the warm autumnal sun, beneath a bright blue sky. Terracotta roofed villas and heavenly hilltop sandstone villages, with their narrow streets, rising up from the landscape, enticing us to a challenge of cycling up to them. And believe me, they were a challenge!

But it’s also a cyclist’s playground. It’s not for nothing that the Giro d’Italia, Italy’s annual road cycling race, passes through here. Tuscany is mostly a hilly territory, with plains concentrated mostly along the rivers and the coast.

For cycling fans, this means putting

yourself to the test on the same hills and slopes many cycling legends trained on, including Bartali, Cipollini and Bettini. Tuscany is in fact a land of cyclists and wherever you choose to pedal, you're likely to cross paths with many other two-wheel aficionados.

And that’s why we were going back! After a long year of training, anticipation and organisation, at last the time had arrived. The Italian Job III was about to commence!

We flew out from Dublin on September 24 and over the next five days we would take in the four corners of Tuscany, stepping in and out of the 2019 Giro D’Italia stage 3 route, touching parts of the Strada Bianche professional route.

We arrived safely at Norcenni in the afternoon and got everyone settled into

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CYCLING TRIP

Ready to hit the road.

some Pavarotti in the air from our trusted driver Dave Fitzgerald. He was up at the crack of dawn with the van stocked up ready to keep us fed and safe. We headed down for a feed of continental breakfast and some true Italian espresso before we got onto our bikes for the first of our four days of cycling.

Another beautiful adventure was about to begin. This almost magnetic wonderland that keeps us coming back every couple of years looked just as we left it.

SAN GIMIGNANO the Villino. The bikes would be delivered that evening by Gippo bikes, where we would size and check them for our first spin early the next day to San Gimignano, before we went down for dinner. It’s a pity we didn’t have flash lights by the time we were finished!

After freshening up, it was great to be greeted so warmly by Claudia, Paolo and their staff at Ristorante Vecchio the first evening. There were different feelings up and down the table, with belly laughs and stories from our past trips coming from one end, while at the other, a sense of trepidation with what they were about to put themselves through. They had nothing to worry about, or did they?

Bright and early on a beautiful Tuscan morning, we were awoken by

The beauty of this itinerary includes long stretches on country roads in heartwarming sunshine. Pleasant surprises are bound to happen. While thinking you will never make it up these hills, you then feel a huge sense of achievement when you look back at what you have done, or find yourself surrounded by the largest sunflower field you have ever seen... every day brings something different.

In the company of this mixed group of personalities, the Norcenni to San Gimignano cycling tour would prove to be probably the toughest day of our cycling trip in Tuscany. We would certainly feel the pain from this first day, with a distance of 140km round trip and its relentless rolling hills throughout of over 3000m of climbing, while experiencing an exhilarating exploration of the scenery and flavours

of the region. We set off and stopped in Montefiorale for a group photo.

But it wasn’t long before we had our first casualty on a steep climb out of Montefiorale to Certona. Everyone regrouped at the top, but we were missing one: Mick Whelan with his big thighs proved too much for his bike, as his chain snapped while climbing a 15% grueller.

We needed our transport department CEO Charles Fitzer Bronson to come to our rescue, but where was he?

Our communications officer Liz Hanley called him on the phone while I headed back to see where Mick was, only to startle him when she suddenly shouted “Car up!” to warn others of a vehicle approaching.

Four of us waited for Dave and the rest headed off to the next town, where they would enjoy a coffee and croissant in a small town called Valgondoli. Dave O’Toole did the business on Mick’s bike. The five of us hit speeds of up to 80k pushing hard to catch up with the leaders. We got our bearings, checked the bikes and set off for our halfway stop for lunch in San Gimignano.

We travelled through Vico D’elsa and Certaldo, some of the Giro d’Italia 2019 stage 3 route, which starts in Vinci (birth place of Leonardo Da Vinci) and ends in Orbetello (an ancient Etruscan settlement).

It wouldn’t have been right not to travel on some of the fierce gravel roads of the Strada Bianchi that kill

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CYCLING TRIP your wrists and rattle your legs. This brought back memories of the 2016 trip where we hit the gravel roads for a bit longer than was planned. But I assured everyone this was a short flat couple of kilometres on the white roads which was greeted with a few expressions of “thank f#@k for that”.

It has to be said that this was a tough leg of our first day, with some good steep climbs through the ancient hilltop villages. But this route was also showing us the landscape of vineyard-covered hills and sunflower fields, with the amazing medieval architecture of the town of San Gimignano waiting for us in the distance.

After strolling through the city streets and enjoying a very well-deserved lunch at Piazza del Duomo, we picked up our bikes and started the "laborious" part of the day. With four big climbs before lunch, we would now encounter the next five hills of the day. One in particular would prove to be the one where we would lose a few people, or they just decided to sit in the sun instead.

It was a race against time to get home as the sunlight was fading with a gruelling last two climbs on very tired legs up to Ponzano and out of Greve.

We made it back just before dusk with 140k and 3000m of climbing.

Of course, if you’re going to be riding your bike, you need to fuel your body – and traditional Tuscan fare won’t disappoint. Our second four course dinner of carpaccio, zucchini, insalata condita and gelato for dessert would just be the trick for the next day’s spin to Arezzo.

AREZZO Another glorious day greeted us as we set off en route to Arezzo with a few tired and heavy legs feeling the pain already, and we hadn’t even left Norcenni yet. But everyone was in great form, and why wouldn’t they be?

This was going to be a straightforward spin. A bit of a climb from when we got out of Figline Valdarno and flat until Arezzo. But a certain person thought she would tell us we were going the wrong way, and we listened. So, we

ended up on the route we were due to go home on. But it got us there in the end. Arezzo is a lovely place - nice lunch in the Piazza sitting in the sun.

After the break, we once again set off on our bikes and cruised through the vineyards of Chianti Classico, stopping for photos several times and once for a rejuvenating snack to give us a bit more energy with 19k to go. A local suggested a different road to a few of the lads and against our better judgement we headed back following signs for Montevarchi and Figline Valdarno, but it transpired that the route was a little longer than planned.

Tom Clare said we were now 30k into this 20k route home!

We made it back early enough to go to the pool though, where our transport CEO Fitzer gave a few of us a pool aerobics session. You can imagine the sight, a gang of hairy firefighters with the farmer’s suntan/milk bottle bodies splashing about, while the bronzed Italians lay around looking on, saying, “Mama Mia, the Irish are back!”

SIENA Day 3 and everyone was up early again, with breakfast and a few espressos on board. There were a few tired bodies, so the original planned route of 145k with 2500m of climbing to Vinci was changed to bring us to Siena instead.

We set off in the direction of Greve again, up to Ponzano this time with a pic opportunity of the Chianti Classico icon at the top of the hill overlooking the Tuscan countryside of rolling hills and cypress trees.

It was an eventless cycle to Siena, but this allowed us to observe the breathtaking scenery on the way. It sees you cycle on peaceful country lanes, through an endless panorama of vineyards, olive groves and centuriesold stone farmhouses, stopping at sleepy villages to refuel tired bodies.

This time the sun was splendid in the Piazza del Campo (home of The Palio di Siena horse race) compared to the lashing rain we had the last time we were here. There was a bit of a wait for a table for 19 people as you can imagine, while a couple of the

highly-strung Italian waitresses had a go at each other over the seating arrangements. We were big business.

The race itself, in which the jockeys ride bareback, circles the Piazza del Campo, on which a thick layer of earth has been laid. The race is run for three laps of the piazza and usually lasts no more than 90 seconds. It is common for a few of the jockeys to be thrown off their horses while making the treacherous turns in the piazza, and indeed, it is not unusual to see riderless horses finishing the race.

On the way back our navigator was bringing us back down some Strada Bianchi again. There were a few comments under breaths, something about never buying a Garmin! So, we just decided to put in the shortest route back to Figline Valdarno. It was the shortest route back alright, but no one told us about the 20k climb and some other unexpected hills that threw a few people into a hypoglycemic slump.

The group split up with a few going a little bit wrong, but Dave Fitz was on the scene. Fitzer is the calming element of the team, offering reassurance every step of the way. He will encourage you to do your best at whatever speed you need and, when you're done and can't do any more, he will just try to feed

Gimignano.

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CYCLING TRIP you. But he will just as easily pack up your bike and converse with you while trailing the group in the support van and making sure everyone is back safely.

Another successful day, followed by more lovely food washed down with some hearty wine. There had been a lot of talk at the table regarding the last day going up to Fiesole, as this was a short but severe climb into the town.

FIESOLE After discussing the route the night before, a decision for the group to split for the last day was made. We all started off together and set off for Fiesole outside Florence and split as agreed in a town called Reggello.

This was so everyone could cycle at a comfortable pace. Directions were given, but within 2k the new navigators were coming back towards us the wrong way. “How could that be?” I heard from the following group, with a few giggles thrown in. Dave Doyle got the lead group going again and pushed it hard to the food stop. The pack got a bit panicked and pushed on after him.

We agreed to meet Dave Fitz at the end of a descent near Carbonile, where he would set up camp at the bottom of the hill for us to refuel. But that wasn’t good enough for Feeder Fitzer.

There were a few locals out for a cycle, minding their own business, so Dave invited them in for a few sandwiches.

They politely declined, once, but when Feeder Fitzer used his charm, they couldn’t resist.

I remembered this route from when we were there in 2014, and it was one that was talked about with great anxiety and anticipation. I think the fear of God was put into poor Miriam! But as it turned out it wasn't as bad as expected, although it was good to see the finish.

When we reached the top, the Italian Fire Brigade were parked, as if it was planned and they were waiting for us, so a photo opportunity presented itself.

We continued on through swathes of woodland, draped over hills overlooking the city of Florence, with the Duomo towering over the city. Not bad, I thought. Not bad at all.

D. Kenyon, D. Doyle, D. Reynolds, B. Mulvaney, M. McCabe, L. Hanley, T. Clare, M. Staunton, B. Delaney, P. White, C. Clare, M. Lodola, C. McConnell, B. Lodola, P. Keogh, M. Whelan, D. O’Toole, R. Kenny.

On reaching Fiesole, we refuelled and continued on the road and cycled down the hill only to discover that Liz had the key to the van in her pocket.

Dave Doyle volunteered to cycle back up the 5k hill, giving the rest of us a chance to have another rest.

We navigated through Florence - not an easy job. We didn't cycle across the Ponte Vecchio twice this time, but we passed the Ufizzi and the Duomo on bikes, and made it through the city safely.

Back at the ranch was another pool opportunity. The bikes were due back and Mick used his negotiating skills to avoid a charge for a supposedly damaged one. It was time to ready ourselves for a night on the tiles, but instead of visiting Figline, we stayed on site, where we had the best meal of the week, washed down with some welldeserved wine and beers. Having met the barman earlier in the week, we were served until the early hours and had a ballad session for good measure.

This Italian experience certainly didn’t disappoint. The only regret was having to leave this inspiring place.

For the soft curves of the roads, the never-ending hills, the gruelling gravel roads that shake your bones. For hilltop medieval villages in the distance, the bicycles that got us there, the wind in your hair, or just on your head! For the food at the stops, the sweat-soaked jerseys that grate your skin. For the bulging eyes on the hills, the sweat that drips, the digging deep, the happy red

faces at the top, for the one who tears away, for the one who catches up. For the buzz at the dinner table, for the wine tasting and sight-seeing.

For the laughter, for the sore legs the next morning. For the scream of the brakes on the descent, the rattle of the gears going uphill. For the aroma of the Chianti air, the sound of the crickets at night, the first espresso of the morning.

For the climbs – oh the climbs– bloody climbs! – that never end - that we really love. For the bruschetta drizzled with garlic and olive oil, for the cappuccino at Greve. For those who couldn’t sleep the night before Fiesole, for those who couldn’t sleep at all because of the caffeine intake, for those who had to push uphill, for those who climbed like a butterfly, for those who were out of breath, for those who called for their “mamma”. For those who asked on the hills, what the f@#k am I doing here?

For those who pushed it hard, for those who took it easy, for those who took the wrong road, for those who found a friend, for those who couldn’t take any more, for those who gave their smiles freely. For those who had their chamois cream at hand, those who whistled their way downhill, those who did it in pain, for the race to the finish line, for a cheeky smile, for a glass of wine. For those who had been waiting a year, those who had been waiting two, for those who have good legs, but especially for those who have a good heart. I hope you enjoyed the Chianti hills of Tuscany.

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MANSION HOUSE OPEN DAY

FF/Ps Alan Murphy and Karl Wilson holding the ceremonial sword and mace at the front steps of the Mansion House.

DFB AND THE FIRST DÁIL A Mansion House Open Day to mark the centenary of the first Dáil sitting showed DFB’s activity in the city during turbulent times.

O

n the morning of 21 Janaury, 1919, soldiers from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Regiment of the British Army, very much representatives of an old guard, had met at the Mansion House, just hours before a very new strand of Irish society walked in and declared themselves the legitimate

government of Ireland. It was a case of “out with the old and in with the new”.

To commemorate that very first sitting of the Dáil, the Mansion House opened its doors to the public on the first weekend of April as part of the centenary celebrations to mark 100 years since that historic event, and fittingly, the

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MANSION HOUSE OPEN DAY

FF/Ps Alan Murphy and Karl Wilson, with Lord Mayor Nial Ring at the Lord Mayor’s Coach.

DFB historians Las Fallon and Paul Hand.

Dublin Fire Brigade’s presence was immediately noticeable.

The DFB has been central to the history of Dublin, and as the Lord Mayor’s house welcomed its citizens in to look around its rooms and learn about the Rising, proclamation of independence, and the ensuing Civil War, two Brigade members stood at the entrance holding the city’s ceremonial mace and sword.

Firefighter/Paramedics Alan Murphy and Karl Wilson were bestowed with the honour of holding these historic items, telling me that the mace was made in Dublin in 1665, while the sword, the personal weapon of King Henry IV of England, was presented by him to the city in 1409.

SO Derek Fox, Martin McCabe and Derek Riordan are also involved in duties as the Aide de Camp to Lord Mayor Nial Ring, they told me,

while FF/P Tony McEvoy was also on hand to impart information about the DFB’s ceremonial roles.

Inside the Mansion House’s Round Room, DFB historian Las Fallon and Museum Curator Paul Hand displayed the rich history of the DFB and its involvement in the turbulent times that saw the city erupt in violence and flames as the country went through rebellion and civil war, while Las’s son Donal, himself a historian, addressed the crowd with an interesting synopsis of the events of 1919.

Among the information on display was details of the call outs from Tara Street as the Rising began, which continued throughout the week and saw firefighters battle “The Great Fire” as then CFO Thomas Purcell called the growing blaze, until both ambulance and fire engines were forbidden from

responding to calls because it was deemed too dangerous.

“It was difficult for the DFB,” Paul Hand told me, “because they had to ask for permission to do their job when they knew citizens of Dublin needed them.”

Also on display were the life stories of DFB members who fought for independence, either before, during or after their time in the Brigade, including Joe Connolly, who rose through the ranks to become CFO in the 1930s.

The citizens of Dublin saw great hardship and terrible loss in the years before and after that first Dáil sitting, but as the displays at this Open House showed, the DFB was always there to help in any way it could, going above and beyond in their duties, and it was fitting that they had a prominent presence on this occasion.

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DARRAGH CLARKE

Darragh Clarke (left) with Cora and Dominic McNabb and CFO Dennis Keeley.

DFB CONTROLLER HELPS SAVE MENTOR Darragh Clarke won an award for his calm CPR guidance to daughter of former instructor.

D

FB Emergency Services Controller Darragh Clarke has won an international award for helping to save the life of his former mentor.

Darragh won the International Academy of Emergency Dispatchers (IAED) Navigator Dispatcher of the Year at a ceremony in Blanchardstown in March.

He received the award after assisting a 999/112 caller in delivering life-saving CPR. The patient, it turned out, was retired DFB firefighter and IAED

programme Instructor Dominic McNabb, who had trained Darragh on dispatch and control before he started in the Eastern Regional Control Centre.

Dominic’s daughter Cora was the person Darragh helped guide through CPR, and thanks to their combined efforts, and Darragh’s calm instructions, Dominic was given the best possible chance of recovery.

DFB firefighter/paramedics and an emergency doctor arrived on the scene and provided Advanced Life Support to Dominic, who had a strong cardiac output before transport to hospital, where he made a full recovery.

Darragh was presented with his award by Pam Stewart, Chair of the Board of Certification with the IAED, watched on by Dominic and

Darragh Clarke holds his award with Cora and Dominic McNabb.

Cora McNabb, as well as senior DFB personnel including CFO Dennis Keeley.

DFB Third Officer John Keogh also presented Cora McNabb with a Good Samaritan coin in recognition of her stepping in when she was needed.

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TERRY KEARNEY

A FITTING SEND-OFF Assistant Chief Fire Officer Terry Kearney talks to Adam Hyland about his 39year career and his recent retirement celebration.

O

n Friday, March 1, the retirement of ACFO Terry Kearney was marked with a fitting send-off at the OBI. Family, friends and colleagues old and new watched a small standdown parade with a Guard of Honour involving recruits from the ERCC Class 1/2019 and their Instructors in the Drill Yard, before speeches and presentations were made in the Church building.

Terry served in the DFB for 39 years as a firefighter and paramedic, rising through the ranks to become Assistant Chief Fire Officer in 2013, and playing an instrumental part in health & safety, management and training.

He was working as a mechanic on commercial vehicles when he decided to join the Brigade. “I thought the fire service looked interesting, and would be a rewarding kind of job,” he tells me. “But I think at the back of it all, every kid in some way wants to be a firefighter.”

He went for interview in 1979 and joined in 1980, training in Kilbarrack before first serving in Tara Street. He moved across several stations over the years, including North Strand, Buckingham Street, then Phibsboro and Blanchardstown.

Upon completing a turntable ladder course, he was transferred back to Tara Street, where he stayed until he was promoted to Sub-Officer. He returned to Phibsboro, but also served at Donnybrook, before becoming Station Officer in Tara Street and then Blanchardstown again.

Terry completed a number of courses while a Sub-Officer, including RTC Instructor, hydraulic platform and BA Instructor, and passed his knowledge on through training courses.

“The idea is that when you get promoted, you start putting something back into the system,” he says, “but it also hones your skills, so you can transfer your knowledge of a specific skill onto the station, or when you are at an incident. One thing I would say about the Fire Brigade is that, even in those days, it was all about trying to educate the workforce.”

As Station Officer, Terry completed further courses in Station Command, and when promoted to 3RD Officer, returned to Tara Street, where his job primarily involved managing resources, but he also underwent further qualifications, identifying that he “needed to have some managerial skills”.

One year into a course at Tallaght IT, he suffered a serious accident during which, he tells me, his claim to fame was that he had “the most injuries”, but fondly recalls the camaraderie and support he and his family were shown throughout his recovery.

“The support my family got, as well as myself, was immense. But that is the beauty of working with the Fire Brigade – they are always there for you if you need them,” he tells me. “They all work together as a team. It becomes obvious when you are climbing up a ladder, and going into a fire with BA, and you are depending on your buddy, it is instilled into you. And that doesn’t stop outside the job.

“If somebody hits hard times, or like me, has an accident, it is just the natural thing for people to come together and help out. When I had my accidenat, I got a lot of moral support from all levels. I have always been a doer, and I

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TERRY KEARNEY

think that stood to me. I had no option but to get on with it, but my family and close friends, it was hard on them, and the Brigade really helped them as much as me.”

Apart from the huge number of visitors from all levels of the DFB and City Council while he was in hospital, Terry is also very grateful for the support shown outside of the hospital ward.

“I started back in work from hospital, coming in for one day per week, and I was allowed to come home from hospital for Christmas, but I couldn’t come home without the proper facilities in my house. In work, they organised for people to volunteer to convert my house to suit my needs. I will always be grateful for everybody who helped with that.” He adds: “Of course, a few months later I would be back to fighting with them like cats and dogs!”

He returned to full-time work ten months later, stationed at Tara Street, where he continued to complete courses to enhance his position.

“I was now dealing with HR primarily, so I did a diploma in Dublin Business School on Human Resources Management. Then the brigade brought in a Business Administration and Fire Science degree. That was done through DIT but is now done through Carlow IT. When I got that qualification, I went for the Assistant Chief Officer role five years ago, and was successful.

“When I did return to work, there was never a problem. I was at a level where a lot of my work was officebased, but I never felt any different from anybody else because I was in a wheelchair. From my perspective it was a seamless reintroduction. I didn’t get treated differently by anybody at any time, in the 17 years since my accident, and that was a great help. There were no allowances, if I did something wrong, I got savaged, but that just showed I was treated the same.”

Terry also played an important role in improving the welfare and conditions for members of the DFB. He was part of the Union negotiating team during the strike in 1988, and was involved in

marathon 24-hour negotiations with Dublin City Council, but was also a member of the Clothing Committee, and was instrumental in the acquisition of improved Personal Protection Equipment such as helmets and pullups, and in the introduction of Hurst equipment, as well as DOE standards for all appliances and ambulances.

“When I first joined, the only way to have an input was to be a member of the Union, so I joined and was on the Union from 1982 to the 1990s.

We were always looking for improvements in training, equipment and PPE,” he tells me. “When I got promoted, it seemed a natural progression for me to try to continue to bring in further improvements.

“We went to huge lengths to ensure the PPE would be a good fit for the brigade. There was never a question of finding the cheapest option, we wanted what was most suitable for our needs.

Our gear is now second to none.”

Terry’s long career also meant he saw huge changes in the DFB, and not just in the kit.

“The year after I joined, the Stardust happened, and that brought about big changes,” he says. “We went from being a fairly basic service with a hose, ladders and basic equipment, to a much-improved service, with a BA set

for everybody, hydraulics for lifting, etc.

It identified the training and equipment we needed.”

At his retirement evening, Terry’s work as an Instructor was also praised, making the OBI a fitting location for the event, and he tells me: “We introduced a different methodology at the training centre. A lot of people would look on this as boring, but I restructured all our archives, so if anybody wanted to get a record of somebody’s training, there was a much easier way to do it. I also introduced a different way of evaluating people, a competency-based approach.

A lot of these things would be part of quality and safety management, which is all about process improvement.”

His work on the management side of the organisation, and his ability to come up with new ideas and new concepts to help improve the DFB was also highlighted, including his role in logistics – all the buildings, fleet and equipment – health and safety, training and quality, or as he puts it, “the cogs that keep the operation going”.

“There has to be a proper logistics support to an organisation, certainly in one like ours where we have 12 stations and two retained stations, the training centre and a workshop. All of that has to be maintained and serviced. To make sure we have our 9,000 pieces of FIRECALL SPRING

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TERRY KEARNEY

equipment certified, we have to be able to identify when each was purchased, when it was serviced, if it is certified.

We are able to say that about all our vehicles and equipment. The logistics planning is therefore crucial.”

When asked what he considers the most rewarding aspect of his career with the DFB, Terry’s answer includes his time at every stage of his career.

“There are two different kinds of rewarding,” he says. “When I was a firefighter, the EMS work was a huge part of the job, and it makes us a very complete service. Whether we are doing fire and rescue, or going into a burning building, or going to an RTC, all firefighters have the skills to be able to handle that and there is no breakdown in communication. If you are a firefighter or on the ambulance and you intervene in a situation, if you do something that has a positive outcome for a person, that is extremely rewarding.

“When you go up to officer level, you get a rewarding feeling when you enable better operations. The guys on the coalface would look at a lot of this stuff as bureaucracy, but when you are managing a whole area, it does improve safety and accountability, so there is great reward in that too.”

Just before he retired, the DFB achieved the ISO 2015 standard, which was another upgrade.

While taking the opportunity to praise his long career, Terry’s colleagues

also took the opportunity to poke fun at him with a slideshow, emphasising his ability to talk at length and argue his case on any number of subjects.

Chief Fire Officer Dennis Keeley spoke about Terry’s passion for his job, his commitment to fire safety for all members of the DFB, and his many achievements and outstanding legacy.

“When he was passionate about something, Terry wouldn’t let it go… even when he was wrong,” CFO Keeley joked. “But that is the part of Terry’s nature that I will miss the most. His passion for his second family – the DFB – made him an embodiment of all the best values the service stands for. I wish him a long and happy retirement to spend with them. Their gain is our loss.

“He has had a long career, and has been involved across many aspects of DFB, but fundamentally everything he did was all about the safety of our members, and everything that has been said about him today is based on a deep love and appreciation for all he has done.”

In return, Terry was asked to say a few words, with an emphasis on “a few”. He said: “I have really enjoyed my career, and I have no regrets. I’m happy to be retiring now, but I must say that what makes the DFB so special to me is the members – the people who were there when I joined, and the people who are in it now. That’s what I will miss. The Fire Brigade is brilliant because, when I was in trouble, they

rallied around me and made a huge difference to my life. Thanks so much for everything, and I will see you around.”

Looking back on it a few days later, he admits that he felt “very flattered and very moved” by the occasion. “I really appreciated it,” he says. “The lads who organised it put a lot of thought into it, and put everything that meant something to me into the presentation they did. I really didn’t want to say a lot. It can be a bit overwhelming, and the last thing you want is to not be able to speak. So, the lads doing the presentation was great. I have to admit I was apprehensive about it, but it was a really lovely night, I really enjoyed it, and I loved seeing all my friends and colleagues there. It really meant a lot to me, because I realised these people were doing this for me to show me respect. It was great, a great night.”

Thoughts now turn to retirement, and spending time with his wife Cora, three children and five grandchildren (with another on the way). “The one thing I said to people when they asked if I was afraid of getting bored is that I would like to give boredom a try for a while,” he says. “I started working before I was 14, and I have worked ever since, so I am due a bit of time off.

“When you get older you start to slow down a bit. We are in a new house for a year now and there is still some work to be done on that, so I will be kept busy enough. When we get that right, my other passion is classic cars, and I would like to get an old classic car and rebuild it. I have the time now to give it a go. On top of that I have the grandchildren, and now I have the time to spend with them, and it’s like recharging the batteries.”

He reserves special praise for his wife Cora. “Cora is the real driving force in the family, the commander in chief,” he tells me. “If it wasn’t for her, I certainly wouldn’t be able to function all these years. People talk about drive and determination, but if I didn’t have the support of my wife, my family, and all my colleagues in the DFB and City Council, I wouldn’t have been able to retire last week after having a very long and rewarding career.”

SPRING 40 FIRECALL

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26/04/2019 17/04/2019 14:35 09:14

STATION PROFILE

STATION PROFILE A WATCH TARA STREET

A Watch members SO Keith Leeson, John Foster, Paul Stanley, Aaron Maloney, Derek King and DO Derek Cheevers.

A WATCH AT TARA STREET SHOW ADAM HYLAND AROUND DFB HQ.

I

hadn’t anticipated being treated to an aerial view of the city when I went to visit A Watch in Tara Street, but given the station’s location in the heart of the city centre, and the eagerness of the crew to demonstrate their 30metre ladder, I couldn’t refuse.

Being part of the station that also makes up HQ for the Dublin Fire Brigade means the Tara Street members are equipped with many of the specialist units that are required on an increasing basis, and need the skills to operate them expertly, explains D/O Derek Cheevers.

As well as two water tender ladders, two turntable ladders and two

ambulances, the station also has several command unit vehicles, an advanced medical support vehicle, two river rescue boats moored at the Liffey, and a foam and environmental unit.

“Operating these is a lot of responsibility... not the type of things you want to damage,” Derek tells me.

SKILLSETS That responsibility means A Watch need the skillsets to match the equipment.

“Obviously, everyone is trained as a paramedic but we also have two advanced paramedics here. We also do a lot of training in marine emergency response, given our proximity to Dublin Port, but as our skillsets are quite

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STATION PROFILE

specialised, in order to work here, you will be trained on a number of skills,” Derek says. “You may come in as a recruit and not have those skills yet, but over time you will have to be trained up, and to maintain all of these skills we have to do a lot of training and drills.”

Given their location, A Watch cover the city centre, “but we will respond to other districts, just as other districts will come into the city centre. We are just part of the overall bigger picture of the DFB,” Derek tells me.

The crew of A Watch has a broad mix, Derek tells me as he shows me around the first two floors of the HQ building that make up the operational station.

“Our oldest firefighter is 51 years of age and has 29 years of service, and we go right down to guys who are in their early 20s who have a year of service, but in general, we would be a relatively young group. It is important to have that mix of experience and youth, with the fitness that brings, and the new gym is a great help with that.”

That recently refurbished gym is one of the benefits of working at HQ. “Most guys are attracted to the fire service because it involves teamwork and fitness, and having the gym on the premises means that a lot of guys use it as part of their daily regime,” Derek says.

CHALLENGES The facilities and layout at HQ do make Tara Street unique, but its location also presents unique challenges.

“We have a huge population, which changes depending on the time of day,” Derek points out. “We have people travelling to work on a number of transport types and there is always the chance of an incident. The Liffey has its own challenges, and we are also looking at the challenge of high-rise buildings.

“Trinity College is right beside us, and there is a lot of research going on there, with biochemistry, etc, so we need to have a hazardous materials response plan built around that.

“We also have an EMS Support Vehicle with 40 trauma kits. You could have a situation where you have enough

The EMS and Command Support vehicles at Tara Street.

S/OFF Paul Stanley surveys the cityscape at 100 feet.

Preparing to raise the 30metre turntable ladder.

personnel but not enough equipment, but with this it means everyone has their own trauma kit, we can have stretchers, we can triage large numbers.”

On the subject of traffic congestion and responding to calls, Derek says that it can be a unique challenge trying to get out the doors to a call. “The volume of traffic means it can take time, but we can also use the Luas tracks, which saves us a lot of time,” he tells me.

The city centre location also means A Watch are constantly busy with EMS calls, especially at weekends, which S/O Keith Leeson agrees with, telling me that “the busiest aspect of Tara Street is the EMS work, with the ambulances constantly on the move, especially at weekends”.

CAMARADERIE Camaraderie is important in order for A Watch to meet those challenges, and Derek says the working relationship between the crew is very good.

“There is always enthusiasm and a good atmosphere,” he says. “It can be difficult and there can be challenging times, but it is also very rewarding.

We see distressing things, but it all comes back to camaraderie when dealing with it.

“You get to know people very well, from the FF/Ps to the admin staff to the control room personnel. There are a lot of people here, but they all get on very well.”

Part of the refurbished gym.

It’s in the yard where I meet FF/P John Foster, Sub Officer Paul Stanley and FF/Ps Aaron Maloney and Derek King, who are keen to get me into the cage on the 30metre ladder to show me what it can do. They strap me into a harness to join Paul on the ladder platform, bringing me up to the full height over and onto the roof of the building to show me the hydraulic extension at work.

Back down on solid ground, Derek then shows me into the control room where S/O Kevin Finn is overseeing operations. Kevin explains that when there is a spike in calls, the SubOfficer can call on 11 personnel to come into the control room.

This is increasing, with 171,000 calls taken in 2018 – 124,000 for the ambulance, 24,400 for DFB and 20,348 for rural calls to Leinster.

Kevin says that as with the FF/Ps out on calls, there is great teamwork in the control room, where people can take distressing calls. “We have a system in place to flag these things, but because of the camaraderie, you tend to know when someone needs to talk, or take a break, before any sort of crisis management is even put in place.”

That is evident from the great atmosphere of dedication and camaraderie I saw at A Watch Tara Street, from both ground level and from 100 feet in the air.

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RECRUIT PASSOUT

NEW RECRUITS JOIN THE DFB Following a passing out parade at the end of 2018, 27 new recruits have joined the DFB.

O

n a freezing day at the end of December, 27 recruits officially joined the ranks of the Dublin Fire Brigade at a Passing-Out Parade at the OBI. Following 25 weeks of rigorous training that began in June 2018, Recruit Class 1/2018 received their scrolls and graduated with the knowledge and specialist skills that equips them to work alongside their firefighter and paramedic colleagues

at stations across the city, with many starting their first shift over the Christmas period.

The recruit class went through a total 29,120 work hours to complete the courses involved. That training included three weeks of basic, a threeweek breathing apparatus course, one-week Pump Operator course, a two-week RTC course, a one-week Hazmat course, a practical week and two weeks of drill and pass out preparations, while there were also 12

weeks of paramedic training to receive a Level 7 Diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons.

The course was led by Course Director A/D/O Mark Fay, Assistant Course Director A/D/O Joe Mangan, five syndicate instructors – S/O Cormac Cahill, S/O Paul Duffy, S/O Ray Martin, S/O Terrence O’Brien, S/O Troy Taylor – as well as two Assistant Instructors – Acting Sub Officer Paul Greene and Acting Sub Officer Alan Walsh. In total, 57 specialist instructors

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RECRUIT PASSOUT

PHOTOS: Trevor Hunt, DFB, and Adam Hyland.

assisted on the course, with external instructors from An Garda Síochána, Coast Guard, Luas and Dublin Tunnel Commercials.

The class was made up of 25 males and two females, ranging in age from 21 to 37, with ten of the class transferred from the Eastern Reginal Control Centre and one recruit coming from the Defence Forces. They are: Gemma Kiernan, James Meehan, Stephen Cullen, Alan McCarthy, Amy Hyland, Darren Brierton, Niall O’Brien, Stephen Cleary, Alan McGrath, Christopher Humphries, David Lawlor, Eoin Cooley, Tom Byrne, Conor Daly, Declan Walsh, Diarmuid Kelly, Jamie Ennis, Sean McBride, Matt Crehan, Andrew Connolly, Gareth Carberry, Christopher Parkes, Gerard Kavanagh, Robert Kelly, Mark Losty, Shane Walsh, Dylan Moore.

The day itself was kicked off by the DFB Pipe Band before the Recruit Class performed a march in the drill yard. Both Lord Mayor Nial Ring and Chief Fire Officer Dennis Keeley addressed the class before making a parade inspection, and then it was the turn of the 27 recruits to perform a foot drill demonstration.

This was followed by a number of other demonstrations including a ladder rescue, hazmat, RTC, fire and EMS, and given the time of year, these took on a festive slant, with the recruits tasked with rescuing one of Santa’s elves from a number of dangerous situations, which kept the many family and friends present entertained.

It was then on to the business of presenting the scrolls, with the Lord Mayor presenting a silver axe to Best Recruit Matt Crehan.

In his address, CFO Dennis Keeley said: “Dublin Fire Brigade has been providing Emergency Fire and Rescue Services to the citizens of Dublin City and County for over 150 years, and ambulance services for over a century. The history of our service is interwoven with the history of the city itself. We are very proud of our longstanding service, but it also imposes a duty on us – a duty to uphold the traditions and standards of our service.

“Every recruit here today is following in the footsteps of a long line of first responders who have carried the badges of their fire service with pride and honour. You are entrusted with that duty, and I am confident you will carry it out faithfully. I have no doubt that you will continue to deliver a first-class service to the citizens of the city and county you serve.”

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RETIRED MEMBERS

RETIRED MEMBER PROFILE Gerry Condron Adam Hyland catches up with retired DFB firefighter / advanced paramedic Gerry Condron, who joined in 2002 after a 21-year career in the Irish Defence Forces.

I

t’s not often that a person has retired before joining the Dublin Fire Brigade, but that was the case for Gerry Condron, who had already served in the Defence Forces for 21 years before becoming the the recruit most senior in age in the class of 2002.

For him, finally joining the ranks of the DFB was the culmination of years of effort, and the realisation of an ambition he had held since he was a child.

“I always had an idea that I wanted to join either the Fire Brigade or the Gardaí,” he tells me. “I grew up along the banks of the canal in Inchicore, and straight across from the canal on Davitt road there was a regular convoy of fire engines and ambulances attending incidents, and looking at them, I figured, yep, that’s what I want to do.

It was boyhood dreams more than anything else.”

However, he joined the Defence Forces first, in 1979, having completed one year with the FCA (now the Reserve Defence Forces).

“The thinking behind it was that if I joined the Army, it would toughen me up, to make me good enough to do one of those two jobs,” he says.

“I also thought it would give me an understanding of analytical thinking,

teamwork, discipline, etc, all qualities needed for firefighting.”

Gerry served on two United Nations tours in South Lebanon, where he drove armoured cars, before he first attempted to join the DFB. “I tried for the Brigade in my early 20s but was not successful, and tried again in my late 20s but again was not successful,” Gerry tells me. “At that time the upper age limit was 30, with a bit of experience in the Armed Forces, so after the second try I thought that was it, that I wouldn’t have another chance. But the aspiration was to continue as much as I could in the emergency services, so I studied a lot of pre-hospital care while in the Defence Forces, I worked part time for Waverley Ambulance, and also became an Instructor for an organisation called North Eastern University, teaching DFB personnel on ambulance techniques.”

Leaving the Defence Forces in 1999, he started working with the NAS, then the Eastern Health Board Ambulance Service, and spent three years with them working frontline in Dublin and Wicklow region.

JOINING THE DFB With this added expertise, and with the upper age limit for new recruits

changed in the late 1990s, Gerry tried again, and as he says, “it was a case of third time lucky”.

On June 17, 2002, he was accepted on to the panel and became the recruit most senior in age in his class, and probably the only one who already had a pension. Gerry recalls that many of the new recruits were more mature than previous classes would have been, due to the opening up of the age limit for application, but despite being older than most, he made sure he was ready for the task, and saw his experience as an advantage.

“I had prepared going in for the DFB process, making sure I was physically fit, knowing what the job requirements were going to be, and practised on the likes of heights, confined spaces, etc, and had done the ambulance stuff, so I had no problem dealing with trauma or other medical situations,” he says.

“I was the oldest junior man in the job, and was made class president, but I was also able to hold my own physically with others half my age.”

Immediately upon joining the DFB, Gerry says that he “settled in very nicely” and knew all his efforts had been worth it, but the level of camaraderie and sense of belonging to a team soon went even further than he expected.

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RETIRED MEMBERS

Just one month into recruit training, his father suffered a cardiac arrest at home. Gerry had just finished a month of strenuous hose and ladder training and had planned to go out for a meal to celebrate, but decided to stay at home instead.

“My father said goodnight, but he went upstairs and suffered a cardiac arrest,” Gerry tells me. “My wife Lisa and I started CPR and made a call for help, and the responding crew were guys that I had been involved in training. They made every effort to save him, and brought him to St James’ Hospital, but unfortunately it wasn’t successful.”

Gerry went with his father to the hospital, and while there got a call from Brian Parks, the mobilisation

officer on the night. “He asked how my father was doing, and told me he had a car organised to go and collect any family members I needed there,” Gerry tells me. “It struck me that despite being only one month in a new job that the Brigade would go out of its way to assist me. He also told me he would sort things out with my district officer about not attending training the following week.

“When my father was subsequently buried the following Wednesday, my entire recruit class attended the funeral along with senior representatives from the Brigade, and a fire engine came from Dolphin’s Barn Station. I was one month in the job but I was already being made a part of it, I was one of their own. It was a sense of feeling that

I had come to like and enjoy when I was in the Army, because you have a sense of camaraderie. That sense is not in all jobs, it is a unique feeling.

“DFB personnel look after the citizens of Dublin, and they will do that with the utmost professionalism, and at the end of the day that is their job description, but when you find things like what happened with my father, or when people in the DFB are very sick, DFB personnel will pull out all the stops to look after them. Even for someone moving house or premises, you will get people coming together to help out in any way they can.” And, of course, all the charitable events.”

In the aftermath, Gerry also discovered that his father had his own

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RETIRED MEMBERS

connection to the Fire Brigade, in the form of a National Bravery Award he had received in 1962. “He was a very humble man and never mentioned it to me,” Gerry says. “But I found this certificate after his death and followed it up, and received a file detailing the events of the day from Comhairle na Míre Gaile, the Council for Recognition of Deeds of Bravery.

My father was a bus conductor and one morning when he was on the buses in Ballyfermot, he noticed there was a house on fire. A teenager ran out saying a couple of his brothers and sisters were still in the house. My father and a couple of others called the Fire Service, but while waiting, one man climbed up a drainpipe and rescued two children, and my father climbed a ladder, broke a window and rescued a third child. With their actions they saved all the children.”

GOING OPERATIONAL Following training, Gerry was assigned to the busy Dolphin’s Barn A Watch, where he says he was influenced by a very experienced crew including Station Officer Adrian Greville, District Officer Frank Morrissey and other revered firefighters, who gave him “a lot of very good guidance”. Gerry says that they “basically taught me to do the right thing while on the job, and to follow their mentorship”.

Following six months attending a variety of call outs, he was transferred back to Tara Street, and because of his paramedic teaching qualifications, Gerry alternated between Tara Street and the OBI. He returned to Dolphin’s Barn in 2004, operating as a firefighter/paramedic and then an advanced paramedic. He was also an on-station medical trainer, helping personnel upgrade or refresh their medical knowledge.

“Because I came in with a medical background, and with an Instructor qualification, I was also nominated to go on the second advanced paramedic course in 2005,” Gerry says, “but at that stage I was very junior within the

DFB, and I felt that if I had gone on that, it would have brought me down a very specific medical role, whereas I came into the DFB to experience all of the aspects of the role – fire, water rescue, heights, hazmat, etc. I didn’t take up that course until 2009, which gave me an opportunity to experience and appreciate all of the aspects of working with DFB, which for me was much better.”

SECOND RETIREMENT In 2015, he reached his compulsory retirement age of 55, and his DFB career ended after 13 and a half years.

“Again, going back to the camaraderie of the DFB, a big deal was made of it,” Gerry tells me. “There was a

dinner in the station, a presentation to myself, Lisa and my son CJ, and that is quite unique to an organisation, and it is memorable.”

When asked what he enjoyed most about the job, Gerry replies: “There was no one thing I enjoyed the most, apart from the challenges of making a difference. Most people who go in through the gates of the training centre are people who want to do that job, you don’t get many people in DFB who don’t want to be there.

“There is also the unpredictability of the job, on a day by day basis. The challenges are always there, and when they work out very well, the feeling of achievement is great, and I think everybody feels the same way.

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RETIRED MEMBERS

THE NEXT STAGE

Also, to represent such a professional organisation that is so well respected throughout the city, country and internationally, makes me very proud.”

He also acknowledges that the job could sometimes be tough.

“You face an awful lot of the stark realities of life in the job,” he tells me.

“I don’t think I am any different to other DFB members when it comes to getting triggers of memories when you pass by certain places. We all see so many different incidents that can stay with you, and they can come back to you when you pass the area where they happened.

“One of the quotes from Joe Duffy at our 150th celebrations in Dublin Castle was that DFB members are very much part of the history of the city, being associated with the tragedies as well as the social aspects. Great work has been done in terms of processing what we see, but there is also a bond wthere that helps. The camaraderie and support network that is there always helps.

“Being able to talk it out is important. It’s mandatory that there is a debrief after a serious incident, talking about your experiences, which can be sombre, but as the session goes on, there is always going to be black humour introduced, and that is a coping mechanism, and a quite effective one. Most people realise that there is someone to talk to, whether it be a designated counsellor or a good friend within the station, they know they can talk it out. When you are working with people for so long, they are like a second family, so you do get to know when they are a bit off, and camaraderie means they can steer people in the right direction, and help them, guiding them towards getting the assistance they need.

“The thinking behind it is that it is a combination of doing the right thing, and helping each other out, because you don’t know what is around the corner. It might be you who needs the help the next time.”

Gerry was not going to let his second retirement stop him from working.

“I was going on 55, but still relatively cerebrally young and active, and of course I still had bills to pay,” he says, “so I embarked upon knocking on doors with other organisations. Now I am working as an advanced paramedic for a private ambulance company, Medicall Ambulance, two days per week, but also teaching for them and other organisations on various disciplines and courses.”

His connection to the DFB is still very strong, as Gerry is an active member of the Pipe Band, in which he plays bass or tenor drum, and is also Quartermaster, responsible for procuring equipment and making sure everyone is kitted out, which is to him a great source of pride.

“The Pipe Band are fantastic ambassadors for the DFB, and it is a pleasure to be a part of it,” he says.

“The band have travelled extensively to the USA, Russia, Northern Ireland, are going to Belgium later this year, and have hosted International firefighters here in Dublin. The Band played a major role at the 150th anniversary of the DFB, had the pleasure of being the first band leading the St Patrick’s Day parade, played with Andre Rieu, and at important commemorations, pass outs and other ceremonial duties.”

Going back to his ongoing career, Gerry tells me: “One thing that was instilled in me while in the Army, and again in the DFB, was that you always need to have a contingency plan. At the end of the day, with the likes of a fire, you assess what is going on, you make a decision, you see if that decision will work, and if it isn’t working, you need to have a Plan B. I have lived my life always having that Plan B. I considered joining the Gardai, didn’t work, stayed in the Army, applied for the DFB, didn’t work, went to the ambulance service, then applied again, and so on.

When I came in, I realised I only had a short time in the DFB, so I had to start making other plans. Always have a Plan B.”

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RTC & TRAUMA CHALLENGE Members of the DFB team.

Working in cramped conditions during an RTC challenge.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Firefighter / Advanced Paramedic and EMS Instructor Eithne Scully talks to Adam Hyland about this year’s Rescue Org Ireland RTC and Trauma Challenge.

T

he Rescue Org Ireland National RTC and Trauma Challenge was held in Sligo Fire Station in April, with the DFB joining teams from the Ambulance Service, Civil Defence, Gardaí and the Order of Malta in the competition to demonstrate their skills in challenging scenarios designed to simulate road traffic crashes and trauma medical incidents.

Eithne Scully, an Advanced Paramedic and EMS Instructor who has been in the DFB for 17 years,

took time out from her shift with D Watch at Dolphin’s Barn to tell me about the event.

“There were seven of us from the DFB there this year,” Eithne tells me.

“We had six in the RTC teams, and two trauma teams of two, with three of the four members of the trauma team overlapping with the RTC teams.”

Those team members ranged in experience and included Incident Commander S/O Declan Rice, Mark Hyland, Brian Carrick, Andy Rogers, Stephen Bonfil, Steven Mason and Eithne.

A huge amount of preparation and training was involved before the competition, as Eithne tells me.

“We had our first training session in December, then after that we trained every Saturday for three and a half hours right up until the competition.

We started off by going through basics, so we went through the initial stabilisation of a vehicle, and individual skills, and then gradually started to pull all of that together.

“We also had instructors from the ROI who came down in their own time to give us pointers, and had other DFB members such as Paul White at HQ, who helped with getting cars out at the OBI or at the station we were training at. Paul was able to put vehicles in all sorts of positions for us, before putting the ‘patients’ inside them. It was hard work but also great fun.

“We held a training event at the OBI in January at which very experienced competitors from Meath and Wicklow were there, and they were able to give us great tips and advice from their experience, and they were very open with the sharing of information, happy that we were involved and encouraging it.

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RTC & TRAUMA CHALLENGE

Eithne Scully during the Trauma Challenge.

Success!

“The amount of organisation that had to go into it was huge, but S/O Declan Rice organised everything for us – the training, the set-up, the trip itself, everything.

“The difficulty for us was that we are all from different Watches, so it was hard to coordinate training, and teams from other counties were training for this more regularly with a set training day, whereas we had a set training day but obviously not everybody could attend every week because of our work commitments with our individual Watches.”

Given the extra training and commitment needed to prepare for the event, I ask Eithne why she became involved.

“Last year I was a member of one of the two DFB teams who entered the Trauma competition, which was instigated by Ray Martin, Sub-Officer in A Watch. He put up a poster asking for people to get involved in the Trauma section of the competition,” Eithne tells me. “Four of us made up two teams and went along, but a lot of team members also went last year just to see what the competition was like, with the intention of entering this year.

Essentially though, we signed up for

One of the unique RTC scenarios.

it because it was a chance to improve our skills.”

Eithne tells me that the competition itself involved two unique scenarios in both the RTC and Trauma sections – Standard and Complex. The Trauma challenge was run inside the fire station, while the RTC challenge took place outside.

For the RTC challenge, teams were made up of an Incident Commander, medics, and tech team members, with every team getting a different scenario to deal with, which Eithne says made it both challenging and very interesting for spectators and rival teams.

“Half an hour before your slot, you go into isolation and wait for the previous team to finish, then the ROI organisers go out and set up a whole new scenario for the next team. It is so well organised. You are driven to the scene in an appliance from around the corner and as soon as the last member of your team hits the ground, your time starts. We use any amount of gear that’s available, all RTC gear supplied, so you can choose what gear you will use from a set list.

“You have no idea what you will be faced with, but it is a great spectacle for the public, to be able to see all the different positions cars can end up in. To see the work rate going on with each team is very interesting for the public too. It’s fun for spectators to see what a team will face before the team does, and to see how they handle it.

“Our complex scenario was a car on its side with two patients, one in the front and one in the back. There was no access to the front or rear, and there was another car up over

the side of the first vehicle’s doors, in an L-shape, so we had to gain access to get in to the patient. The front windscreen was removed, allowing me to stand in and deal with the patient in the front. Steven Mason was able to talk to the second patient by lying down and facing upwards towards her.

It’s all very difficult in such a small amount of space.”

Given the challenging scenarios, how did people do?

“It was mixed,” Eithne tells me.

“There were three or four teams who were able to get their patients out on time. We didn’t, but it was our first time in the competition, and we were very happy with the feedback we got from the ROI assessors, who give you a ten-minute debrief on how you did, and that was very valuable for us.”

On the Trauma challenge side of things, there were also two scenarios, a ten-minute Standard scenario involving one patient, and a tenminute Complex scenario involving two patients, and the DFB saw some success, with FF/Ps Brian Carrick and Andy Rogers winning Best Team in the Standard section out of 16 teams, and coming fourth overall.

“It was fantastic to have a DFB team on the podium,” Eithne says, “especially because the Trauma competition has really taken off and there were a lot of teams competing.

“The whole competition was exhausting, but it was a learning effort for us this year, to see where we were and how we stood in relation to other very skilled teams who have been doing this for years and really know their stuff. It is a very good learning curve to watch them and see how they do things.”

Having seen what the level of competition is like, and gaining some valuable insights into how other organisations approach the challenge, Eithne says the interest in next year’s competition is already building.

“Every one of us who went this year is gung ho to go again next year,” she tells me, “and we would definitely encourage other members to sign up to take part.”

FIRECALL SPRING

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COMMERCIAL FEATURE

ROCK AT THE RACES Keywest kick off Naas Racecourse Summer Racing & BBQ Season.

A

ward-winning artists Keywest will kick off Naas Racecourse’s Summer Racing & BBQ Season on Wednesday, 26 June.

The Dublin-based group are a main stage act at festivals including Electric Picnic, and have played support slots to the likes of Bastille and Kodaline, with major hits including ‘Something Beautiful’ and ‘This is heartbreak’.

Lead vocalist Andrew Kavanagh said: “We are looking forward to returning home from our UK tour to perform at Naas Racecourse. We love a day at the races and we are very excited to perform live at the track.”

The Summer BBQs are held in our BBQ Pavilion located adjacent to the

parade ring. The BBQ Package includes admission to the races, a race card, BBQ meal, reserved table for the day and access to live music from Keywest.

Tom Ryan, General Manager at Naas Racecourse said: “We are thrilled to have Keywest perform at Naas on our first of three Summer Racing & BBQ dates. These Evenings have grown from strength to strength over the years, and provide the perfect opportunity to get a group of friends, family or work colleagues together to enjoy racing, music and great food.”

The first race goes to post at 6pm, with the last race at 9pm, and music will commence just after the last race.

Admission Tickets are just €15, Student

Tickets & OAP Tickets are €9, the BBQ Packages is €42 and the Beer & Burger package is €30. All mentioned Ticket options include access to the live concert from Keywest after racing.

Naas Racecourse is located just minutes from Naas Town and the track provides a complimentary shuttle bus to and from Poplar Square and Sallins Train Station.

Summer BBQ and Racing will also take place on Saturday, 6 July, and Wednesday, 24 July.

Visit www.naasracecourse.com to find out more information or to make a booking.

Date for your diary Ladies Royal Ascot Trials & Ladies Day Sunday 19th May More info online at naasracecourse.com

Go Racing at Naas this Summer 11th MAY – Family Fun Day • 19th MAY – Royal Ascot Trials & Ladies Day • 26th JUNE – BBQ & Music Evenings 6th JULY – Naas Town Goes Racing • 24th JULY – BBQ & Music Evening • 5th AUGUST – Family Fun Day

Panoramic restaurant

Golden Ticket

BBQ Packages

Four Course Meal Package: Includes admission, racecard, four course meal & a reserved table overlooking the racecourse.

Includes admission, €5 Free Bet, Racecard, €5 Drinks Voucher and €10 Food Voucher.

Available on summer BBQ evenings.

Packages include admission, racecard, full BBQ meal, reserved seating, private betting and bar facilities.

045 897 391 | goracing@naasracecourse.com | www.naasracecourse.com 247305_2L_Naas RC_JM_FC 21.01.indd 1

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04/03/2019 09:12

26/04/2019 14:58

DFB GOLF SOCIETY

Tee Time

Club Captain Siobhan Talbot.

DATES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

F

ollowing on from our AGM on 5 December last year, history was made when our first ever female Captain, Siobhan Talbot (pictured), was handed the reins from outgoing Captain Noel Jackson for the 2019 season. Our courses for 2019 were presented by the secretary. One additional course was added on request of the member present.

Because of the success of last year’s AGM, we intend to hold our next AGM after a nine-hole outing in December (date to be confirmed).

We would encourage all golfers serving or retired to join the society.

All members, whether enthusiasts or

veterans, tyros or seasoned pros are invited to join.

If any member would like to join the society, please contact one of the committee members. If already a member, please ensure your name is on the WhatsApp group so you can be kept up to date with all the latest news and results.

The main focus of the society is to foster and promote the game of golf in a friendly but competitive environment.

We have approximately 120 members and we are delighted that our membership is very popular with retired firefighter: It’s a great way to stay in touch with ex colleagues.

Good golfing for the new season!

CLUB OUTINGS

The DFB Golf Club welcomes its first female Captain ahead of an exciting year, writes David Kavanagh.

Apr 1: Balcarrick Golf Club Apr 25: Woodbrook May 20: Malahide Jun 19: We play NIFS at Knighstbrook Golf Club in Trim for the Draeger cup - a great way to meet (and hopefully beat) our colleagues from the North.

July 19: Our Captain’s outing will be held in The Captain’s home club of Corrstown Aug 8: Roganstown Sept 13: Our President’s prize outing to Tulfarris, Blessington, Co Wicklow Sept 25: The European Club Oct 10: The Grange Oct 29: Out last outing to Laytown/ Bettystown FIRECALL SPRING

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INTERVIEW LORD MAYOR

FIRST CITIZEN Lord Mayor of Dublin Nial Ring talks to Adam Hyland about a busy year in office and his relationship with the Dublin Fire Brigade.

L

ord Mayor Nial Ring rushes into the dining room at the Mansion House, apologising for being two minutes late.

He has come straight from his constituency clinic in Ballybough and has a full day ahead of him that includes a meeting with the Algerian consulate, then a reception to celebrate the 1899 local elections in the Customs House, followed by afternoon and evening events back at the Mansion House. It’s fair to say he is busy, and is keeping up his reputation of being the most active and hands-on Lord Mayor in living memory – something members of the Dublin Fire Brigade can attest to.

He has been a constant presence at DFB-related events, campaigns and ceremonies since he came to office in June 2018.

For him, the position of Lord Mayor means it is imperative to remain a central focus of Dublin city life.

“I have deliberately worked to open up the Mansion House to the public,” he tells me, “and we have had more than 30,000 people over the year visiting for various events. For instance, I had the Special Olympics team in before they went to the Olympics, and a reception when they came back, at which I was out-blinged by the medal winners!”

THE DFB That work includes ensuring a strong

Lord Mayor Nial Ring at the Mansion House.

relationship with the DFB, which he describes as “intrinsically linked with the city’s people”.

“A lot of DFB events during my time as Lord Mayor stick out,” he says. “I was lucky there was a passing out parade while I was in office, because I had never been at one. It was spectacular. The display they gave was amazing and it’s a pity more of the public doesn’t get to see that, because it gives you great confidence in what they do.”

One lesser-known role of DFB is that they act as the Aide de Camp (ADC) at formal occasions, and also

carry the city’s ceremonial sword and mace.

“I am glad the DFB still have that ceremonial position,” the Lord Mayor says. “The 2001 Local Government Act did away with a lot of titles and ceremonial stuff, but luckily enough they kept that concept and that role where the lads have the mace and sword for ceremonial occasions.

“At any time, I can ring the ADC and ask for them. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it is for funerals, but having them there with me adds a huge amount of gravitas, shows a huge amount of respect for the person and

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09/05/2019 15:22

INTERVIEW LORD MAYOR

Lord Mayor Nial Ring with DFB members holding the City Sword and Mace at the St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Lord Mayor Nial Ring and his wife Joyce meet up with CFO Dennis Keeley.

their family, and that is a lovely role they play.”

That relationship with the DFB extends to other events that allow the citizens of Dublin to connect with their Lord Mayor. “The DFB were also in attendance at the five Open Days I had here during my term in office, and they attract people like a magnet, with people looking for photos with them… to the point where I was nearly getting a little jealous,” he jokes.

“People were looking for pictures with the mace and sword and with the two handsome firefighters, and I was standing in the background dangling

my chains of office! They really look the part, and that is obviously part of the ethos of the Fire Brigade, the almost militaristic appearance.”

APPRECIATION Back in January, the Lord Mayor also extended an invitation to DFB members for an appreciation night at the Mansion House to acknowledge their work. The reason for this was simple, he tells me: “One of the things I always wanted to make sure of was the DFB members, both past and present, feel welcome here. They have a great camaraderie, and I wanted to

be able to facilitate that, but I also wanted to officially acknowledge the great service DFB provides to the city and county.

“You can’t be in existence for 150 years and not have huge ties with the city, but the service they provide is incredible.”

The Lord Mayor is keen to point out how that 150-year history is intertwined with that of the city, and to acknowledge the work done by the Brigade to keep the history of the fire service fresh in our minds.

“Las Fallon is brilliant when it comes to history, and what he has done in terms of pulling together artefacts from the city’s history and from the DFB’s history is great,” he says. “We now have the log books from Tara Street from 1916, old firemarks and equipment, and without people like him, some of that would be lost. He also provided us with an 1898 ambulance for one of our Open Days, which again helped to draw in crowds.”

The Lord Mayor is also certain that a constant presence in the community only strengthens the position of DFB in people’s minds. “When a fire tender visits schools, it always causes great excitement,” he tells me. “I managed to get the Lord Mayor’s car washed for free one day, because the firefighters turned the hose on it!”

As well as the ceremonial role and events mentioned above, Lord Mayor Ring is also heavily involved in other events, activities and campaigns that help to highlight the important work of the DFB. “The Fire Safety School Art Calendar campaign was hugely enjoyable to be a part of,” he tells me. “That was lovely, and it is one of the things I have really noticed in my time in office: Dublin City Council and the Dublin Fire Brigade are such an integral part of the city, they do so much for the community, yet they don’t get the recognition. But when they are out there and open to the public, you easily see the affection and admiration people have for the DFB. They have built up a very strong

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INTERVIEW LORD MAYOR relationship with the people of Dublin.

“The DFB are as much a part of the city of Dublin as the Lord Mayor,” he adds. “There is still a large affection towards the position of Lord Mayor, or that is what I have found, but whenever there is something involving the DFB, you notice a real connection to the people. That is also borne out by the fact that people can sleep safe at night knowing that such a terrific service is there, but it is also down to the fact that there are generations of Dublin people who have all had some connection to the DFB. Everybody knows somebody, or has had at least one family member in the DFB.” The Lord Mayor is also proud to remind me that he completed his CPR training with the DFB. “That was excellent,” he enthuses.

“All of the staff here did it, it is something everybody should do, something that could turn out to be really important someday. I used to look at defibrillators on walls and wonder what you do with them, but now I know how to use them, and I now also subconsciously look for where the defibrillator is in any building I walk into – it’s the basic training, the awareness to look for these things, that the DFB taught me that day.”

ST PATRICK’S DAY Of course, the most high-profile event for any Lord Mayor of Dublin is St Patrick’s Day, and Nial Ring was no exception, thoroughly enjoying the day alongside DFB members and the Pipe Band.

“St Patrick’s Day – what a day!” he recalls. “The people of Dublin love the parade, and love seeing the Lord Mayor’s coach being led out by the DFB. We don’t have the same level of pomp and ceremony as other nations, but we do like it, and when you have 500,000 people lining the streets and the Lord Mayor’s coach is moving through it with the DFB there, and the Pipe Band leading it, which is only right and proper, the reception they all get only reinforces the super relationship the Dublin Fire and

Meeting DFB and Tasmania Fire Service personnel on St Patrick’s Day.

Ambulance Service has with the city.”

The Lord Mayor also went above and beyond in welcoming visiting firefighters from around the world into the Mansion House at a moment’s notice over the St Patrick’s weekend.

“I had met a good few of them on St Patrick’s Day,” he tells me, “and you could see that they were just an extension of the DFB family. There were guys from Tasmania who had never been here before, and guys from all over the US, and we had them in here for a look around. A few of them got to sample a pint here too – we hadn’t quite run out of the beer supplies yet.”

When asked about the current situation regarding proposed changes to the ambulance service provided by the DFB, the Lord Mayor is firm in his opinion.

“It should be left well enough alone,” he tells me. “It works well. We have a special committee on the fire service in Dublin City Council and almost all are opposed to the proposed developments. In our view, they are attempting to fix something that isn’t broken. The Chief Fire Officer attends those committee meetings and keeps us briefed, and we fully support the current role of the ambulance service provided by the DFB. “If I am re-elected as a councillor in the local elections, I will continue to fight on their behalf, and hope the next Lord Mayor follows suit.

I mean, the stats say that Dublin is the second safest city in the world in which to have a heart attack, and the paramedics and advanced paramedics provide an incredible service, and

it is important to recognise and celebrate that.”

STRONG TIES Sensing his next appointment approaching, I ask the Lord Mayor what he thinks about his time in office.

“It has been a great year for me,” he says. “I see the three jewels in the council’s crown as being the fire service, the parks and the libraries, they do so much and are held in such respect, but the DFB hold a very special place in the hearts of the people of Dublin, because they are the ones people turn to in their time of need. When you see first-hand how people are treated with such care and dignity, you understand why this is. They treat people when they are at their most vulnerable, and always do it with respect.

“In short, the relationship between the Lord Mayor and the DFB is very close, and I have been happy to develop that further this year.”

As a final question, I ask what he does if he ever manages to find time to himself, but as he explains, any free time he does manage to find, in some capacity still involves his role as Lord Mayor.

“I do the Park Runs,” he tells me, “and though I do them as Lord Mayor, it is time to yourself, and I take part in a lot of other sporting events.

It’s of great benefit to yourself to keep active.”

He has certainly been active during his time in office, and many will look to Lord Mayor Nial Ring’s successor to continue playing an active role in strengthening the relationship with the Dublin Fire Brigade.

SPRING 56 FIRECALL

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09/05/2019 15:23

COMMERCIAL FEATURE

GROW: SUPPORTING POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH

Struggling with your mental health? GROW’s nationwide weekly support groups can help.

A

nxious, depressed, isolated or struggling with your mental wellbeing? In need of help and support and want to speak to others who understand? GROW weekly support groups can help.

GROW is Ireland’s largest community-based mental health organisation and has been supporting people to journey to mental health recovery since 1969. GROW holds 120 peer-support groups across Ireland.

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and provides a structured mental health programme (52 per cent of those surveyed).

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www.grow.ie 246981_2L_GROW_JM_GT19.indd 1 1C_GROW_JM_FC 21.01.indd 57

GROW (Ireland) Web. www.grow.ie

Email: info@grow.ie

Facebook: www.facebook.com/GROWIreland Charity No. 20023294

19/03/2019 13:00 26/04/2019 14:56

INTERNATIONAL PROFILE

NORTH LAUDERDALE FIRE RESCUE DEPARTMENT, Battalion Leader and Chief of Emergency Medical Services Bill McGrath talks to Adam Hyland about life as a Firefighter/Paramedic in this small city in south Florida.

S

everal of North Lauderdale Fire Rescue (NLFR) came to Dublin to march in the St Patrick’s Day Parade this year.

Along with friends, family, and colleagues from neighbouring cities Plantation and Margate, they enjoyed the hospitality of the Dublin Fire Brigade, which Battalion Leader Bill McGrath describes as “unbelievably great”.

North Lauderdale is a small city in south Florida, with a population of less than 50,000, and its Fire Rescue Department, established in 1973, has 45 full-time personnel working across three stations. The city lies within Broward County, which has 16 fire departments and around 90 fire stations in total, and the North Lauderdale crews can be called

out to any incident within this much larger area.

“The way our county works,” Bill tells me, “is that we have a Closest Unit Response, so it doesn’t matter which department you work for, if your unit is closest to an incident, you go. We all have the same dispatch too, which makes it easier. It is fairly unique, and while it is not a perfect system, it does allow each city to have its own designated fire department.”

Similar to the DFB, all personnel are trained as both firefighters and paramedics, and as well as rescue units and ambulances, Broward County also has specialist teams such as HazMat, water rescue, and two helicopters.

This makes for a lot of call outs (around 250,000 in the county every year), but the majority are EMS calls, rather than fire calls. The reason for this is twofold, as Bill Explains.

“We tend not to get too many big fires because the threat of hurricanes means we have very stringent building safety regulations. We have them, of course, but not as many as other areas such as New York, Boston or even Fort Lauderdale. There is a relatively large

population, but apart from single home fires, there is not a large number of big fires, because of that building construction.”

The second reason is the population of the city and county.

“South Florida has a lot of elderly people and retirees, and there is a big focus on their patient care, and the majority of what we do is medical. Our budget is funded quite a bit by EMS,” Bill tells me. “Our part of Florida is very advanced in terms of facilities, with three trauma centres and eight stroke centres.”

Then there is the diversity and surrounding geography that provides a range of challenges.

“We have everything, our city is very diverse. There are a lot of family homes, with a lot of children, so there are a lot of child emergencies, and South Florida has a lot of water – it is surrounded by canals, it’s got the ocean, everybody has a pool - so water plays a part in many incidents we attend.”

The city also has a diverse population, with a large number of people from Jamaica and Haiti. “We are unique in our county in that there are people coming here from all over the country and beyond, so we have multiple languages,” Bill tells me, “We have people in the fire department who speak creole, or Spanish, so sometimes there can be communication challenges, but it is important that the personnel in the department reflects the community.”

Apart from the number of EMS calls, a major challenge for NLFR is the hot south Florida climate, which Bill says can reach over 110 degrees.

“Our firefighters can get very hot, very quickly, and overheating is a real danger, even without a fire,” he tells me.

“We need a lot of hydration for our own safety, because it can get hot!”

As well as the fire and ambulance service they provide, NLFR also plays an import part in the community of their city, including awareness campaigns and programs for schoolchildren, such as their Fire Explorer program.

“We bring schoolchildren aged between 14 and 18 to our stations twice

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09/05/2019 15:24

INTERNATIONAL PROFILE

North Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Bill McGrath presents a gift to CFO Dennis Keeley ahead of the St Patrick’s Day Parade.

a month, where we do training with them,” Bill tells me. “They learn how to be a firefighter, and they are even involved in competitions against other schools. We then look to them first when we are hiring, and train them to be full-time firefighters. They sign up from school, and we provide a career path for them.

“We also do a lot of CPR training, with a big focus on survival, and people being able to perform CPR. All of our city employees are trained in CPR,” Bill tells me. “We also have a Stop the Bleed campaign, which teaches people how to apply tourniquets and basic first aid,” he adds. “Unfortunately, that has become a necessity with the number of violent incidents and tragedies we have seen recently, such as the Parkland shootings (in which 17 students and teachers were victims of a mass shooting in February, 2018), and the Fort Lauderdale airport shootings in 2017 (in which five people were killed), both of which we had to respond to. Unfortunately, we need to educate people on how to use tourniquets and stop bleeding.

“It is an unfortunate aspect of where we are at nowadays,” he reflects, and this “unfortunate aspect” extends to their own personal safety.

“All of our personnel now have to carry bulletproof vests and Kevlar helmets,” he tells me. “If we have an

active shooting to attend to, we put on our bulletproof clothing and go in with the police. We are not armed, and our job is to evacuate victims, while the police protect us, so at least we have bulletproof vests on.

“It’s definitely something that firefighters did not sign up for, but unfortunately it is part of our job now.

We can’t wait outside when a shooting happens while the police try to clear it, because unfortunately people will die from their wounds. We need to go in, so we don our protective gear and go in.

“We train with the police in order to do this as well as we can, but unfortunately it has become pretty common, it’s just the way it is now.

Everybody expects it.”

That is definitely the worst aspect of working with NLFR, but Bill tells me that on the flipside, there are some great sides to the job too. “The most obvious positive is the personnel.

We have fantastic firefighters and paramedics, and because we are small, we are very tight-knit, and we do everything together, in and out of work.

“We are a real community,” Bill adds, “and the fact that 13 of the 16 departments in our county are in the same union means that we are united as one.”

He also has high praise for Fire Chief Rodney Turpel, who has been

with the service for 30 years. “He is a huge proponent of ours,” Bill says.

“A lot of people want to go and work with a bigger department, but they stay because of the personnel and the Fire Chief. Plus, it’s also a great place to live and work.”

Having visited the OBI on his visit to Ireland, and seen the DFB Museum, Bill is keen to talk about his own department’s museum, which he tells me was established by Fire Chief Turpel.

“Our department only started in 1973, so we are still a pretty young fire department, but the county has been operating for many years and the museum was Chief Turpel’s own personal project,” Bill tells me. “He reached out to a lot of older retirees, got hold of a lot of older pictures, and developed the museum. We have a lot of people who will come by and take a look at the books and pictures depicting old personnel, old fires, so it is a good response. He wanted to make sure the younger generation appreciate the history of the fire service, especially our fire service, which seemed to be losing touch a little bit.

“Younger people weren’t necessarily realising the sacrifices older firefighters made, so he wanted to make sure that was kept. To treat firefighters with respect.”

This, for Bill, is very important, and he wants his department to take a leaf out of the DFB’s book when it comes to forming generational links and a real connection with the history of firefighting in Broward County.

“I saw the DFB Museum, and loved it. You have a lot more history than we do, but even talking to DFB personnel, they told us so much from the history of the DFB, and we are trying to do the same thing, to instil that pride, that ownership of the history and the people who came before us.

“You have a lot of personal history too, with generations of the same family being part of the DFB, and that is something we would love to replicate.”

Bill is confident that his department can succeed in this endeavour, saying: “We have a long way to go to match the DFB, but we have the right people!”

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INSURANCE FIRE BRIGADES AND FIREMARKS

A PIECE OF HISTORY Las Fallon explains the origins of Insurance Fire Brigades and Firemarks in Ireland.

I

n 2012, Dublin Fire Brigade remembered its 150th anniversary as a municipal brigade. As I have often mentioned, the previous year had actually marked the 300th anniversary of the foundation of a municipal fire service but was totally ignored for some reason. In 1711, Dublin Corporation had purchased a “water engine” as fire engines were then called, and engaged a man to operate it and provide a crew for it when needed. It was a gesture towards providing a city fire service, but in reality, Georgian Dublin was protected from fire by a very odd combination of fire pumps provided by the Church of Ireland on a parish by parish basis, and a professional service provided mainly for the well-off customers of the fire insurance offices operating here.

Two acts of the British parliament in 1715 and 1719 required each Church of Ireland parish to maintain a large and small engine and associated gear. The “parish pumps” operated with widely varying degrees of efficiency until the foundation of the municipal brigade in 1862. They had no properly trained staff and vastly different styles of engine and equipment. The Insurance Brigades are a different story, and a piece of that story recently came into the collection of the DFB Museum.

Fire insurance companies, or “fire assurance offices” to use the terminology of the times, were first

formed in the late 17th Century. Initially operating at the heart of British trade and banking in London, they gradually began to be formed elsewhere as the years went by and the business proved profitable.

The first company to cast its eyes across the Irish Sea and look at the potential of Dublin and Irish business was the Royal Exchange Assurance (REA) founded in 1720, which appointed an Irish agent, Luke Gavin, and set up a branch in Dublin in 1722.

Part of the operation of the fire insurance offices was to establish a fire brigade The Hibernian Firemark. or “fire engine establishment” with an engine and trained firemen to protect its customers and reduce the company’s exposure to loss. In the case of the REA, the firefighters wore a very distinctive pea green uniform, complete with a top hat. To show that a property was insured and so liable for protection from the company fire brigade, each insured property was marked with a lead firemark bearing the company symbol and the policy number.

The use of a symbol rather than simply naming the company was both an advertising strategy and a recognition that the majority of the

population would be illiterate and so unable to read a simple written sign.

In popular imagination, the fire insurance companies would only fight fires in property insured by their own office and ignore all others. In fact, the companies very soon came to fight all fires in insured property and sometimes combine with other insurance fire brigades to do so. They could demand payment for fighting fires in property insured by other companies, but also call on those companies’ fire brigades to fight large fires in their own insured properties.

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INSURANCE FIRE BRIGADES AND FIREMARKS

The Dublin Insurance firemark recently acquired by the DFB Museum.

Lord Mayor Nial Ring with Las Fallon and CFO Dennis Keeley with the Dublin Insurance firemark.

REA fire brigade equipment.

In a short time, all insured property could rely on an increasingly efficient fire fighting force from the separate insurance companies, but the general public still had to rely on the parish pump brigades.

More British insurance companies began to set up in Dublin to tap into the insurance business here, but the first Irish-owned company, the Hibernian, was not founded until 1771.

The Hibernian used a crowned harp as its firemark symbol. Shortly afterwards, other Irish-owned companies entered the increasingly profitable field.

The General Insurance Company of Ireland was founded in 1777. It used the symbol of the Phoenix rising from the flames as the basis for its firemark, and in 1784 it was joined by the third Irish company, the Dublin Insurance Company, operating from offices at 33 Dame Street, opposite Fownes Street.

Its firemark used a very unusual device, as it carried the coat of arms of Dublin city – a symbol usually associated with Dublin Corporation. The company maintained a fire engine establishment and we can find mention of them attending fires in the city including the “great fire at Mr Smith’s home on Castle Street” in April 1817.

The Dublin Insurance company ceased to trade later in 1817 when its business passed to the Phoenix Fire Assurance company. The Dublin Insurance Company passed into history and its firemarks are considered among the rarer Irish ones.

For many years, I have collected items associated with Irish fire service history, including a small collection of firemarks. Late last year, I was approached by the family of a major British firemark collector who had passed away. Part of his collection was

being sold off and a Dublin Insurance mark was about to come on to the market. I approached the Chief Officer and made a case for buying it for the DFB Museum collection. He was in favour and an offer was made. In view of the fact that the mark was coming back to Dublin and would form part of the DFB collection, a very reasonable price was agreed and the rare piece of Dublin fire service history was soon on its way home.

In an informal meeting in the Mansion House in January, Lord Mayor Nial Ring joined CFO Dennis Keeley in presenting the firemark to museum curator Paul Hand, who accepted it into the DFB collection. I was delighted to have played a small part in seeing this rare item come home to Dublin.

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OBI INSTRUCTOR COURSES

MAINTAINING A HIGH LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE Instructor Courses at the OBI ensure the DFB continues to improve training across the organisation.

E

nsuring there is a constant high level of expertise in place to instruct DFB firefighters across every discipline is ongoing, and the Dublin Fire Brigade Training Centre plays a vital part in this process.

Under Brigade Training Officer, Third Officer Brendan Carroll, there are now 366 courses, both internal and external, available at the OBI. For DFB members, the core training courses to bring FF/Ps to instructor level include RTC, Pump, Driving, Water, Hazmat, High-Line, Swift Water Rescue and BA. “Those courses are just the tip of the iceberg,” D/O Frank Kiernan says as he shows me around the Training Centre, telling me that the aim for the OBI is to bring training to a standard whereby other organisations ask to come here to do courses.

The OBI has eight classrooms but is looking to expand, Frank explains, but he also shows me the buildings and areas where practical training exercises are undertaken, in what he calls “the real bad boys” of the courses – the compartment and ship units. Safety is high on the agenda for these courses, with the ratio of students to instructors being at least four to one.

Instructor Courses tend to be in high demand, with places allotted based on seniority, and the OBI is looking to expand the number of these courses available. “The Training Centre is operating very well, and we get a lot of training done for both recruits and Instructors,” Frank says. “There is a lot of interest in the courses and between

Brendan Carroll, myself, and others, we are working very hard to make as many courses available as we can, and the facilities available at the OBI mean they can be undertaken to a very high level.”

PUMP INSTRUCTOR COURSE S/O Peter Higgins was Course Director for the two-week Pump Instructors Course, which he ran with three other Instructors in February.

There were 12 students on this new course at the OBI, which Peter tells me was broken down into two sections.

“The first week was the basic Pump Instructors Course,” he says, “featuring all aspects of pump operation, such as hydraulics, fire services, method of instruction, risk assessment, practical operations, water supplies, main pumps, portable pumps, and water relays.”

Student Instructors had to prepare and deliver a classroom presentation, then a skills lesson in the yard from a topic assigned to them. They were also set up in three syndicates, with each syndicate tasked with producing a classroom lesson and an exercise in the yard that the other two syndicates could take part in, and which could be delivered at any station.

“This will be a drill that will go into the Brigade Drill book and the Learn Pro system,” Peter says. “The benefit is there for the operational side, as well as the training side.”

Peter adds: “We just got three new appliances going to different stations, and that has a knock-on effect because the pump at one station will then go on to a different station,” Peter tells me.

“There are training needs associated with

those pumps, and having new Instructors on board helps a lot.”

Assessment on the course was ongoing.

“There are assessments on the classroom, on delivery in the yard for practical demos, then there is also a written exam at the end of week one,” Peter tells me.

“Then we do individual skills assessment and syndicate assessment, so it is fairly full on.”

Week 2 is a Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) Instructor course, which has never been done at the OBI before. “There are three separate CAFS appliances, so the students had to be trained on each, and that was also done through a combination of classroom and yard exercises,” Peter says.

“The last two days dealt with covering all of the other appliances in the DFB, so after the two weeks, the students were able to instruct on any appliance in the job with a pump. Until this course, there were only a handful of us who could instruct on all pumps, and now we have a new group of 12 instructors who can go to any station and teach competently on any appliance.”

Peter adds: “We also have new recruits coming in June, and there will be Pump courses in their training, so we will need these 12 new Instructors, who will be able to hone their Instructor skills.”

As with all of the other Instructor courses at the OBI, Peter sees the facilities in place as a great benefit to the DFB. “We have everything we need here as a training facility,” he says. “We built a pump room with a number of pumps which we cut open so you can see all the internal parts. We worked hard to get that ready for the Instructors Course, and the feedback was that it was a fantastic facility and made it so much easier to understand the context.”

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OBI INSTRUCTOR COURSES Instructors and Graduates from the Pump Instructor Course class.

Student Instructors working on HGV.

Training exercises in BA wearing for Instructors.

Peter was also keen to thank the team that helped run this course.

“Thanks to 3RD Officer Brendan Carroll and D/O Frank Kiernan for facilitating the running of the course.

Thanks also to the logistics section and Mobilisation Officers and crews from North Strand and Kilbarrack fire stations for helping out. Thanks to the students who put in a lot of work to be successful on the course. Special thanks to S/O Ken O’Dwyer, S/O Tom Doolan, S/off Robert Moore and A/S/ off John Connolly for the high standard of instruction, and a special mention to S/off Robert Moore for the incredible work he put into producing the training aids, it is second to none.”

RTC INSTRUCTOR COURSE The two-week RTC Instructor Course took place in February, overseen

by Course Director S/O John Daly.

Though the 12 Student Instructors would already have had a lot of experience dealing with RTCs as part of their daily operations, the aim of

Training exercise at the Compartment Fire Behaviour Training Instructor Course.

the course was to train them to become Instructors so that they could pass on their expertise to new recruits and to DFB personnel.

Alongside John Daly were S/Os Declan Rice and Tom Doolan, and Acting S/Os Tony McLean and Noel McDonnell, all of whom had previously completed their training at a National Directive Course and brought that training back to the OBI. The course is designed to train personnel towards becoming instructors in every aspect of RTC management, looking at the standard operating guidelines to be used, the standard equipment on appliances such as hydraulic tools, as well as new tools, but also new car types such as hybrids and electric.

While there is an obvious focus on road vehicles, the course also covers other scenarios that could present themselves to Dublin Fire Brigade crews. “There are incidents that would be particular to Dublin,” John says, “such as the Luas and the Port Tunnel,

so we need to cover these.”

Lessons on the course, therefore, include stability, glass management, RTC procedures, hydraulic tools, overturned vehicles, casualty clearance, HGVs, air bags, railway incidents and Luas incidents.

The course itself is a combination of classroom lessons and yard exercises, with an emphasis on hands-on practical experience, and as well as continuous assessment, every Student Instructor is given a project to research and deliver to the class.

“As we deliver the course, we are looking at how students are able to present their own knowledge and research, and as a final assessment, they have to deliver a practical training session in the yard - they have to set up an exercise, obtain objectives during it - so we let them run that themselves to assess how well it goes.”

John adds: “They have to be able to run this exercise to a high level, because we need them to be able to go back to their stations and competently deliver that training exercise to others, to not just maintain but improve the standard at every station.”

John also tells me that while these new Instructors can present best practice and procedures in their stations, as Subject

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OBI INSTRUCTOR COURSES Matter Experts they are also involved in creating training modules for the eLearning system, which they would also have been trained on during this course.

John cites the storage compound where Instructors can avail of a large number and wide range of vehicles on which to practice as a great benefit. “The OBI also has a good relationship with the suppliers of tools needed,” he adds, “and they are able to get in equipment which we are then able to assess, such as battery-operated and hydraulic tools.

“The yard is also great – we have a roundabout, a narrow road to simulate a country road, so that in itself is a great facility to have, we can replicate and awful lot of different types of incidents.”

John adds: “The improvements to RTC training have come from the Directorate of Fire and Emergency Management Planning, the national standard, and Dublin Fire Brigade is able to bring that forward through the Instructors we have, who can share knowledge and experience for the improvement for the Brigade, and the new Instructors can carry that on.”

John thanks Training Officer Brendan Carroll, his team of Instructors, all of the staff at the OBI, and the 12 class members who showed great dedication in the successful completion of the course.

BA INSTRUCTOR COURSE S/O Ronan Magee and his Instructor crew ran the two-week BA Instructor Course in January. He outlines the necessity of having this course in place.

“The ability to wear breathing apparatus safely is a core proficiency of every firefighter, and therefore there must be instructors in place to instruct in breathing apparatus wearing. The basic objective of the course is to teach student BA Instructors how to deliver a BA Wearer’s course to recruit firefighters, and to existing firefighters through continuous professional development.”

Student Instructors are divided into syndicates for the duration and have a number of prescribed competencies to fulfil to pass the course.

“Each syndicate is tasked with the delivery of BA lectures and subsequent technical exercises associated with those

lectures,” Ronan tells me. “Assessment is continuous: Students are specifically assessed on their ability to lead a BA exercise safely, to match technical and procedural objectives, and to be able to work as a team to deliver such exercises.”

Students are assessed throughout, from the delivery of lectures and the completion of prescribed documentation, to the management of resources and the setting up and delivery of the BA wear, including the presenting of pre- and post-incident safety briefs.

Ronan adds: “There is a significant emphasis on teamwork during the course, and an absolute emphasis on health and safety throughout.”

He also tells me that the demands of the course are challenging, but in different ways.

“Many students on the course can be apprehensive of the standards expected of them, while others can be daunted by the thought of delivering a lecture to their peers.”

However, students deliver lectures in a progressive manner. Some may not have delivered a lecture in a formal setting before, so they are typically tasked with the delivery of a non-technical lecture first, with Instructors on hand to guide.

Following this, students would then be required to deliver a full 45-minute lecture, and culminate with the delivery of a technical research-based project.

The practical aspects of this course present students with a number of technical challenges throughout, but the Breathing Apparatus search facilities in the Brigade Training Centre provide a valuable resource to enable Student Instructors build dynamic training scenarios. Such scenarios include the use of live fire, confined spaces, industrial, and multi-occupancy type incidents.

“During these exercises,” Ronan tells me, “the students are accompanied at all times by a qualified BA Instructor, whose multi-disciplined role includes making sure safety is adhered to at all times, critically appraising the students, and guiding them in BA instruction.”

Communication is of critical importance when breathing apparatus procedures are in use. Ronan adds: “The

importance of effective communication skills in breathing apparatus wearing is a principle that was constantly reinforced with Student Instructors during the course.”

Breathing Apparatus instructors need also to be constantly aware of challenges facing breathing apparatus wearers.

“It is important that BA wearers know their own limits, and understand their decision-making abilities, particularly when working in hot and humid environments,” Ronan says.

“BA wearers often have to make decisions that are time-critical in testing conditions and circumstances. An important part of the course is to put Student Instructors through similar challenging exercises to reinforce the safety-critical aspects of breathing apparatus wearing.”

Ronan reserves special praise for the Student Instructors who completed the course in January, and thanks for the Instructor crew who helped train these students to the level of Instructor.

“I would like to congratulate all of the students who passed this demanding programme,” he says, “and I would like to thank the Brigade Training Officer Mr Brendan Carroll, all the staff at the OBI, and give special thanks to the Instructor team of S/O John McNally, S/O John Berrigan, S/O Richie Elliott, S/O Shay Coyne, Acting S/O Brian Lynch, and Acting Sub-Officer Pat Trappe, for their dedication and professionalism in delivering the course.”

COMPARTMENT FIRE BEHAVIOUR TRAINING INSTRUCTOR COURSE S/O Richard Elliott ran the two-week Compartment Fire Behaviour Training Instructors Course at the OBI, which started in early March, with 17 students in the class overseen by nine instructors.

12 members of the Dublin Fire Brigade came straight from the BA Instructors Course, while five of the students came from the Northern Ireland Fire Service.

Following on from the BA Instructors Course, this two-week course aims to equip Student Instructors with the latest approaches and techniques in compartment firefighting and the skills to

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OBI INSTRUCTOR COURSES educate others in this area.

As with the BA Instructors Course, it is delivered through a combination of discussion-led and practical sessions, with a number of experiments carried out during the course to reinforce what is covered in the discussions.

Combining classroom theory with practical exercises, the course demonstrates the appropriate tactical procedures for Compartment Fire Behaviour Training, the appropriate extinguishing and cooling techniques prior to entry into a building, recognition of the signs of potential danger in the environment and mastering the application of appropriate procedures for operating the carbonaceous training simulator unit.

Upon completion of the course, Student Instructors could then go on to the Tactical Ventilation Instructor Course to complete their training to become Instructors across all BA courses for the DFB.

BA TACTICAL VENTILATION AND FLOW PATH MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTOR COURSE D/O John Chubb introduced the Tactical Ventilation and Flow Path Management Instructor Course to Dublin Fire Brigade, which was founded on evidence-based practices from around the world. Having been part of a delegation to the UK in 2008 to study tactical ventilation, he has worked to evolve the course based on contemporary research in firefighting tactics.

“I was very fortunate to serve on a technical panel in the United States,” John tells me. “A major research organisation, Underwriter Laboratories, received US state funding to investigate firefighting techniques to include ventilation tactics and flow path management, and the emergent research has now been incorporated into DFB processes.”

The most recent one-week Tactical Ventilation/Flow Path Management Instructor Course was run in April of this year, with 12 students taught by five instructors. All students had initially passed both the SCBA Instructor Course

and the Compartment Fire Behaviour Training Instructor Course, before undertaking this training.

In the last ten years, the understanding of tactics for fighting fire have evolved significantly. Dublin Fire Brigade, a progressive organisation, have been monitoring these developments and are open to adopting modern practices that are supported by robust scientific research.

“We have incorporated cuttingedge research into our approach to firefighting, and enhanced our understanding of fire behaviour based on research into ventilation flow paths,” John says. “When you understand these concepts, it is possible to manage flow paths in a way that protects the firefighter and leverage a tactical advantage.

“We are also starting to use new equipment such as the fog nail, the smoke curtain and the floor below branch. Marrying these technologies to positive pressure ventilation tactics allows us to control all aspects of a fire’s ventilation and heat release rate.”

The course itself combines a theoretical component underlining the latest research followed by practical demonstrations of how the theory works in practice, plus the practical management skills needed to take control of all aspects of a fire event.

“We set the exercises at a basic level initially, so to the student, firefighting operations present as conventional and familiar,” John tells me. “Slowly, we introduce new strategies and techniques, then we move to combination tactics, where we bring together several techniques and create a multiplying effect.

“We want to challenge our students’ existing knowledge by letting them apply techniques that may appear counterintuitive,” John tells me, “then show them that by using the latest technology and theory in unison, they can generate real tactical advantages.”

Student Instructors are assessed in a number of ways. “We undertake an objective assessment of their practical skills, with an Instructor assessing whether the students are correctly applying the skills they have learned.

Participants in the Compartment Fire Behaviour Instructors Course at the OBI.

We also conduct a one-to-one interview where the student is asked to discuss the concepts and practices taught. We triangulate their knowledge and skills to assess their competency, but more importantly, their ability to transfer those techniques and knowledge to the fire ground and stations when they leave the Training Centre.

“Essentially, we are looking for changes in the student’s behaviour, those changes have to have a measurable benefit to the organisation, in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and safety.”

The facilities at the OBI, John says, are key to the implementation of training on this course.

“When we were developing our course, we went to learn in Sweden, Germany, the US, France and the UK, then we designed a unit in the OBI that would facilitate the very latest approach to training firefighters,” John tells me.

“We have the tactical unit, connected up with our ship and confined space modules, and that allows the students to experience those scenarios in a realistic simulation, and apply the tactics taught in a way that demonstrates efficacy.

The unit we have is bespoke, purposely designed for this type of training.”

This has led to what John sees as a World Class Instructor course.

“If you look at the current firefighting course for Instructors that we have developed, it is as good as anywhere in the world,” he tells me. “When you train an instructor combining SCBA, Compartment Fire Behaviour, and then the Tactical Ventilation Flow Path Management course, you produce individuals who have completed a comprehensive cutting-edge development cycle. To my knowledge, no other organisation matches this level of investment in the development of firefighting Instructors.”

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TRAVEL

GREAT GROUP DESTINATIONS Tallinn

If you’re thinking of getting away with a group of DFB colleagues, consider these places before they turn into tourist traps.

E

stonia’s capital is a real treasure that is growing in popularity but has not yet been saturated by tourists. The city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is small enough to ramble around but has a huge amount to see and do. The nightlife is buzzing, and with great beer being very much on the cheap end of the scale, it’s easy to understand why. There are a lot of very good restaurants that seem impossibly cheap for the quality on offer too.

Passed around between Denmark, Sweden, then the Soviet Union, before gaining independence in 1991, Estonia and particularly Tallinn displays a huge amount of diverse history in every building and street, and while it is fast becoming a modern European city, it still retains that old world feel to it.

A stroll along the city walls will give you and idea of the city’s history, before you descend into the streets to sample the food and drink on offer.

Given its historical links to Russia and the Soviet Union, Tallinn still has remnants of the Communist era dotted around, and just south of the city lies Paldiski, a place recommended to anybody who wants to get a sense of a bygone time that has left only ghosts behind. It was the site of a nuclear submarine base from the 1960s onwards, and is now an eerie abandoned townscape full of empty military buildings set against dramatic coastal cliffs.

The SeaPlane Harbour is also a great place to visit. The biggest maritime museum in Europe, it hosts a submarine you can walk around in, as well as a steam-powered ice breaker.

Another bonus to Tallinn is that it is just a two-hour boat ride away from Helsinki, so you can grab an afternoon in Finland to add to your travel wish list.

EAT: As well as serving delicious and cheap beer, Hell Hunt serves good food late into the night. On the upper level of the scale, Pegasus is a classy restaurant that serves really good food. As well as the best bread rolls you will ever eat, it also stands out for its beef dishes, and while it looks luxurious, the bill will seem impossibly small for what you get STAY: Tallinn’s prices are still very low compared to many other European cities, so even a stay in the luxury Radisson Blue Sky Hotel – the tallest building in the city – is cheap for what you get. However, for groups, it is well worth checking out Apartment 24, an agency who specialise in fully-equipped apartments in central locations. They are all self-catering and some come with a sauna.

FLIGHTS Ryanair flies to Tallinn every Wednesday and Saturday.

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TRAVEL

T

he Catalonian city of Girona is known by many as the cheaper destination to fly to on the way to Barcelona, but it has enough going for it to make it a great place for a group holiday, without the hassle of having to get on another train from the airport.

The region has a saying that every day is a festival, and there really is a party vibe oozing from the streets. Girona is one of those compact cities that manages to maintain an old world charm while also having a feelgood, youthful vibe that you can taste – literally and figuratively – in its many great restaurants, cafes and bars.

You could do worse than sit at one of the cafes in the square and sip on a few beers.

Nearby is Castillo Gala-Dali, a small castle bought by Salvador Dali for his muse and lover.

The garden full of carved elephants with stiltlike legs will make you think you are in one of his surrealist paintings.

Girona is not just for those looking for culture though – there are plenty of activities on offer for groups. If the tickets for a Barcelona game make your eyes water, consider a trip to the compact Estadi Montilivi to watch Girona FC continue to punch above their weight in La Liga.

Less than half an hour away is the small town of Sagaro, where you can dive into the clear blue Mediterranean, or just relax on the pristine beach, while the region also boats a range of hillwalking trails and a great 40km cycling route.

Back in town, one thing you must make sure to do is climb onto the Lioness statue and kiss its behind. Legend has it, it will not just bring you luck, but ensure you return some day.

Girona

EAT: Divinum offers ridiculously tasty meals at very reasonable prices that will leave you wondering what the catch is, but the city is packed with small eateries offering cheap but filling snacks. Afterwards, saunter to Konig and sit outside on the square sipping one of their beers.

STAY: The AC Hotel Palau De Bellavista sits atop a hill overlooking the city of Girona, its terrace offering great views from which to sit, relax and plan your day.

It’s got very good rooms, a gym and an outdoor pool.

The centrally-located three-star Hotel Peninsular is in the heart of the city, a mere 700m walk from the cathedral.

FLIGHTS: Ryanair flies from Dublin to Girona on Sundays and Wednesday.s

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Head Office Pigeon House Road, Dublin 4 Tel: (01) 667 5335 | Fax: (01) 667 5345

Branches Ringaskiddy, Cork Tel: (021) 437 8014 | Fax: (021) 437 8195 Garycastle, Athlone, Co. Westmeath Tel: (09064) 73366 | Fax: (09064) 76472 Crag Terrace, Clondalkin Industrial Estate, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 Tel: (01) 457 6852 | Fax: (01) 457 8158 Deepwater Quay, Finisklin, Sligo Tel: (071) 9153360

Best Wishes to the Fire Services

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TRAVEL

Bratislava

W

hile Prague represents the beaten track, the Slovakian capital of Bratislava is a well-kept secret that visitors try to keep that way. This compact city on the Danube has all the history and art you could ever want, but its two main advantages are its affordability and great cuisine.

The schnitzel, goulash and dumplings just have to be tried, and there are a host of very good restaurants in which to fill your belly, but the beer rivals anything you would find in the Czech Republic, only cheaper.

There are dozens of microbreweries dotted across the city where you can try as many of the up to 100 beers on offer as you can, and it won’t make much of a dent on your wallet.

Another great thing about Bratislava is that it is surrounded by hills, forests, rivers and lakes, so there is plenty to do if you want to get active in the great outdoors. Get the bone-shaking trolleybus up to Kamzik Hills and enjoy the view that takes in parts of the Slovak, Austrian and Hungarian countryside, before trying your hand at bobsleigh.

Nearby Devin is a short bike ride away, and here you can see the memorial to the Iron Curtain, reminding you how close the border

with the West was, but it’s also worth taking a bike tour to see the concrete bunkers hidden in the bushes.

The hills surrounding the city are also home to a number of vineyards producing good quality, but very cheap wine and tasty snacks, and getting there by bike allows you to sample what’s on offer before freewheeling home.

Bratislava also has some bizarre architecture. While the city has the quaint St Martin’s Cathedral and two eye-catching opera houses, as well as the castle that is definitely worth a visit, it also has the SNP bridge - a unique engineering masterpiece to rival Prague’s Charles Bridge, if not for beauty then for sheer strangeness. Coined the UFO Bridge by locals, it looks just like a spaceship has landed on top of one of its towers a drink there is a unique and unusual experience.

EAT: Modrá Hviezda is one of the top-rated restaurants in the city, focusing on traditional Slovak dishes, with pork heavily featured. The cosy ambience is great, as are the staff. Slovak Pub does exactly what it says on the tin, offering a relaxed atmosphere, as well as tasty Slovakian food and a large range of beers. It’s the ideal place to come in the evening.

STAY: The historic Hotel Devin is located conveniently between Hviezdoslavovo square and the Danube. If you want to try a cheaper option, you can opt for the Freddie Next to Mercury hostel, which might be worth a stay for the name alone.

FLIGHTS: Ryanair flies daily to Bratislava.

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TECHNOLOGY

TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS THE LATEST INNOVATIONS FOR THE WORLD’S EMERGENCY SERVICES.

SMART FIREFIGHTING

AUGMENTED REALITY A Silicon Valley company has designed a new augmented reality (AR) device that could help firefighters save more lives by enabling them to “see” the outline of objects through smoke and other low-visibility scenarios.

"We were looking to just navigate safely, and realised that the amazing core technology that thermal imaging is didn't quite cut it for us, so we looked to improve it,” said entrepreneur Sam Cossman.

The result is C-Thru, a wearable, AR display and thermal camera that can be mounted inside a standard firefighter’s mask, capturing the surroundings and adding high-vis lines that highlight

walls, door frames and even bodies on the floor.

Cossman says the device is still at least a year away from being commercially available to fire departments, and expects it will initially cost less than the $4,000-$6,000 fire departments in the US currently spend on each two-way radio that firefighters carry.

"Our goal is to get this technology so that it's accessible to a large majority of the fire departments on Day One, but ultimately, we expect that price to go down," said Cossman.

A student at the University of New Mexico has presented research on 3D scene reconstruction to State government officials, aimed at preventing firefighter injury and fatalities.

Manish Bhattarai had already presented his project titled Smart Cyber Fire Fighter System at a shared knowledge conference, and was selected to put his research before legislature. “We employ a deep-learning based system for image classification, object detection and tracking, path planning and navigation, path reconstruction, scene segmentation, estimation of firefighter condition, and Natural Language Processing for informing firefighters about the scene,” Bhattarai said.

As firefighters move through a fire, various sensors would pick up and relay information, including thermal imagery and a firefighter’s stress levels, to a server. The server would then process the collected information and calculate the best paths to take to find victims and exit the scene. In turn, the server will relay information back to them, similar to a GPS system, telling them the location of doorways, windows, and most importantly, people that would otherwise not be visible through smoke and flames. The system will also show firefighters where there are safe areas to retreat with victims.

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Best wishes to all Irish Fire Fighters

ACCA

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TECHNOLOGY

ROBOT MOVEMENT

MOBILITY VEHICLE South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai has unveiled a futuristic concept vehicle that could allow first responders to drive, walk or even climb over the types of treacherous terrain seen during natural disasters.

“Elevate” is the first Ultimate Mobility Vehicle with moveable legs that combines robotics with electric car technology to enable the driver to climb a 5-foot wall or step over a 5-foot gap, while still maintaining the ability to drive at regular road speeds.

Using wheels with robotic legs, the Elevate vehicle could allow first responders to go far beyond the limitations of traditional off-road vehicles to reach those in need.

“Current rescue vehicles can only deliver first responders to the edge of the debris field. They have to go the rest of the way by foot,” said John Suh, a vice president at Hyundai.

“Elevate can drive to the scene and

climb right over flood debris or crumbled concrete.”

Hyundai Design Manager David Byron added: “Imagine a car stranded in a snow ditch just 10 feet off the highway being able to walk or climb over the treacherous terrain, back to the road potentially saving its injured passengers – this is the future of vehicular mobility.”

The concept was shown off at technology exhibition CES 2019 in Las Vegas in January, as part of a project designed to explore “beyond the range of wheels”.

Hyundai hopes the Elevate vehicle, which they acknowledge is still several years from being a reality, could eventually be used to assist people with disabilities navigate tricky urban or rural terrain. “This technology goes well beyond emergency situations,” Mr Suh said. “People living with disabilities worldwide that don’t have access to an ADA ramp could hail an autonomous Hyundai Elevate that could walk up to their front door, level itself, and allow their wheelchair to roll right in. The possibilities are limitless.”

Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana have developed a new design in firefighting robots that increases their ability to manoeuvre through fires.

The new automatic T-valve system can automatically remove water from a fire hose whenever a robot used in firefighting scenarios moves to a new location.

The system enables the robot to move more efficiently around a burning structure.

“This discharge valve invention could be the next transformation of the fire service that saves lives,” Eric Dietz, Purdue Polytechnic Institute professor, said. “This invention further enables the firefighting robot by adding to the robot mobility and saving lives within the fire service and, most importantly, with the public. With this improvement, the firefighting robots are better able to save lives and protect property.”

Dietz added that the efficiency of firefighting robots is increased when the weight and power consumption is reduced, and he said the system closes the potential gap between the machine and a human firefighter due to improved mobility.

The T-valve system also improves the battery life of a robot, according to Dietz.

The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization is now looking for partners to continue the research and take the system to the market.

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WILLIAM O’BRIEN MOTORS VEHICLE REPAIR & TEST CENTRE Car Repair

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Welcome to those in need Bro. Kevin would like to thank those who have donated to the Capuchin Day Centre, enabling us to provide 850 meals a day and 1,700 food parcels a week for the people who attend the centre. We have a doctor’s clinic, dental clinic and chiropodist on-site and showers are provided every day.

As both a service workshop and an authorised LGV vehicle test centre our workshop and test lane is equipped with the most modern and latest technology diagnostics testing tools and vehicle electronic systems analysis covering the majority of the range of petrol and diesel car and LGV commercial vehicles.

T: (01) 855 5403 / 5513 ■ Fax: (01) 855 3632 W: www.williamobrienmotors.com

Please send a donation, no matter how small to:

Bro. Kevin Crowley ofm cap.

Capuchin Day Centre, 29, Bow Street, Dublin 7.

Telephone: 01-8720770

or donate online

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Best wishes to the North Strand Fire Brigade

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BOOK REVIEW

BOOKSHELF THE BORDER:

The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics

by Diarmaid Ferriter

N

obody really knows just what is going to happen to the border between North and South when the UK finally leaves the EU, as the significance of this frontier grows from a national to a continental one. In this time of uncertainty when we face the threat of that invisible, porous line returning to a very real, very hard wall of checkpoints, it is helpful, then, to at least be able to trace its origins and get our facts straight about just what led to this impasse.

Those facts are laid out in Irish Times columnist Diarmaid Ferriter’s new book that helps paint a picture of the decisions and actions, both bad and good, that brought about the border in the first place, how tensions mounted around its sheer presence, and how it dissolved into a wayward line across fields and roads that nobody paid much attention to, until now.

The book looks back over the diplomacy, political wrangling and many periods of civil unrest that partition fostered well. It also discusses the general thawing of relations between the prominent figures north and south of the border and the role being part of the bigger picture in the form of the EU played in this.

Ferriter’s work doesn’t go as deeply into individual events or eras as other works on the topic of Anglo-Irish relations. What it does do, however, is give us an overview of the border problem, from its origins right up to the present day, and so is a useful guide for anybody who wants to know why we are where we suddenly are with regards to the border, even if we can’t know where the future will bring us.

The Border: The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics is published by Profile Books, €15.99

THE MASTERMIND:

The Hunt for the World’s Most Prolific Criminal

by Evan Ratliff The story of Paul Le Roux is bizarre, and well worth reading for the sheer oddness of his rise and fall, as well as his character. A diverse range of barely legal business ventures soon evolved into drugs and weapon smuggling, murder and bribery, all of which he ran remotely via email and phone, becoming a virtual gangster. It was all a game to Le Roux, who would oversee a massive drug deal one day, write a magazine travel feature under a pseudonym the next, and consider invading the Seychelles the next. His strange personality and behaviour ensured that his eventual capture by US agents would not be the end of his story, one that changes direction and focus with every chapter.

The Mastermind: The Hunt for the World’s Most Prolific Criminal is published by Bantam Press, €24

SPRING 76 FIRECALL

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BOOK REVIEW

THE GODFATHER:

50th Anniversary Edition

by Mario Puzo

WINNING FOR IRELAND:

How Irish Athletes Conquered the World

by Peter Byrne

W

hile the Irish rugby team have deservedly taken centre stage in our hearts and minds of late, and many of us have grown up remembering the success of footballers who donned the green jersey, it is important to remember that it was in the arena of athletics where Irish stars first shone a light on our nation’s sporting ability.

Peter Byrne, a long-time reporter on Irish athletics, brings us an interesting and engaging reminder of this fact in his new book. He details the tumultuous early days of the sport in this country, from the first athletics meeting in 1857, to a falling out with the GAA and inter-governing body rifts that only healed in 2000 with the formation of Athletics Ireland.

From athletes unable to compete for their own country due to the precarious political status of the nation, through the first Olympic medals won by Dr Pat O’Callaghan, then Ronny Delaney’s 1956 gold in Melbourne, right up to the 1990s and Sonia O’Sullivan and beyond, Byrne lovingly depicts each era and the heroes who came out of them. Their successes helped put Ireland on the sporting map, and this book is a prolonged love letter to their achievements.

Winning for Ireland: How Irish Athletes Conquered the World is published by Ballpoint Press, €19.99

It is 50 years since Mario Puzo’s epic novel first hit the shelves and influenced the cinematic masterpiece

by Francis Ford Coppola (who writes the introduction), and this anniversary edition gives you the chance to savour it in all its glory.

Drawing together the storylines from the first two films, it still stands up as an immensely well-written, winding tale full of memorable scenes and themes straight out of a Shakespearean drama.

The Godfather: 50th Anniversary edition is published by Heinemann, €20

THE CHESTNUT MAN

by Soren Sveistrup

Any fans of Danish crime drama The Killing will be excited about the debut novel from its creator, Soren Sveistrup, in which two very different detectives discover the body of a young woman, with a doll made of chestnuts hung above her. Typical to Scandi-noir thrillers, the standard murder is never as straightforward as it seems, and leads the mis-matched pair down some dark and twisted turns. What makes Sveistrup’s novel stand out from others in the genre is his sheer writing ability and willingness to let the plot build then subside repeatedly, as he did with his scripts for The Killing, making this a riveting and highly-rewarding read.

The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup is published by Michael Joseph, €16.45

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Emergency Services News From Around the Globe.

INDIA

SWEDEN

An investigation into a hotel fire in New Delhi in February that killed 17 people has revealed breaches in regulations and faulty alarms, prompting a mass re-inspection of other hotels.

The Hotel Arpit Palace passed a fire safety check in December 2017, but a copy of the initial police investigation showed several breaches of fire regulations, including a lack of signs to guide guests to exits, and fire alarms that didn’t work.

Delhi's fire service, which is responsible for safety inspections as well as fighting fires, is now reviewing certificates issued to more than 1,500 hotels in one of India's tourist hubs, a senior fire official said, but stretched resources mean the re-inspection process could take months.

The city has around 1,700 firefighters, he said, which is less than an eighth of the number in New York, a city with less than half of Delhi's population.

A study last year by India's Home Ministry found that the country had just 2,000 of the more than 8,500 fire stations it needs.

Swedish fire authorities have made plans to purchase their own water bombers and end their reliance on the resources of other European countries following last year’s swathe of forest fires across the continent.

Previously, the Nordic country has called on Italy, Spain, Portugal and neighbouring Norway for water bombers to quench fires in Europe’s largest forest-producing country as part of a European agreement, but the extent of simultaneous forest fires across the continent last year led to conflicts over resources.

“Sweden’s own resources for forest fire fighting were too small and not prepared for the large forest fires this summer,” the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) states in a new report, proposing the procurement of helicopters, smaller aircraft and access to larger aircraft to carry out water bombings.

“The most important thing is that we get better ability to water bomb from the air, and to get a stronger and more skilled rescue service,” said Dan Eliasson, Director General of MSB. In addition, MSB wants to invest both in better coordination between rescue services and training in order to increase competence in forest fire fighting.

In total, the agency proposes training courses at a cost of around €6 million.

HOTEL FIRE INVESTIGATION

MALAYSIA

OFFICERS TO TRAIN OVERSEAS The Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department is planning to send a number of its officers overseas this year to undergo training and improve their skills and capabilities in handling water rescue operations. Director-general Datuk Mohammad Hamdan Wahid said the officers would be sent for training at rescue agencies in Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom, among others. “When they return (upon completion of training), they will be made instructors whom firefighters and rescuers can refer to,” he said. “They can also help draft a training programme and modules or come up with a suitable standard operating procedure.”

FOREST FIRE RESOURCES NEEDED

FIRECALL SPRING

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

SCOTLAND

DISTRESS SIGNAL PICKED UP IN TEXAS An unwell man living in a remote area of the Scottish Highlands was rescued by a UK Coastguard helicopter after his distress call for help was picked up in Texas. The man in his 70s usually activated a “check-in” GPS beacon every Sunday to let family know he was ok, but in February accidentally triggered an SOS signal, which was picked up at the International Emergency Response Coordination Centre (IERC) in Houston.

They notified the HM Coastguard in Hampshire, who, not knowing if the SOS was intentional or not, took no chances and sent the Prestwick Coastguard helicopter to the man’s cabin outside Fort William.

A winchman mas lowered to the man’s home and found him in need of urgent medical assistance, after which the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team moved him to an area where he could be winched on board the helicopter and transferred to hospital.

USA

VIRGINIA PLANS TO ARM FIREFIGHTERS

✶

Firefighters in Virginia may soon be allowed to bear arms after a bill allowing them, EMTS and paramedics to carry a concealed firearm was passed with a small majority in the state’s Senate. The bill was proposed

by Senator Amanda Chase, who has in the past been armed on the Senate floor. She said that firefighters may have the need to defend themselves, especially at the scene of a violent incident, and in rural areas where law enforcement may be slow to arrive at the scene.

The bill, which is opposed by Democrats who warn that arming firefighters without training could pose a danger and create legal liability, is set to go before the House. A similar bill was defeated last year.

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The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) are working with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Centre for Advanced Structural Analysis (CASA) to use live explosives to “investigate how tubular concrete structures behave when subjected to internal blast loads” as part of a plan to build the world’s first submerged floating tunnel.

The tunnel, a €35 billion infrastructure plan, is being built to dramatically cut the 21-hour car and ferry journey time between Trondheim in the north and Kristiansand in the south, but will conduct safety tests to assess what would happen to the tunnel’s structure if, for example, a truck carrying dangerous goods exploded inside. However, results so far show that the water pressure surrounding the tunnels would reduce the damage caused. The whole route won’t be completely finished until 2025.

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