12 minute read
GOING GLOBAL
Former DFB member Paul Rock talks to Adam Hyland about coordinating a huge humanitarian aid project to India, Nepal and Brazil.
Many will be aware of the outstanding humanitarian work done by DFB members past and present, and the number of ways in which they have made a positive impact in the world. One recent endeavour, however, brought the idea of “DFB
Global” to a whole new level.
Former DFB firefighter and Sub-
Officer Paul Rock is now an Assistant
National Fire Adviser in the National
Directorate for Fire and Emergency
Management, part of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and a member of the
National Emergency Coordination
Group, a European Civil Protection
Mechanism Expert, and Disaster
Assessment and Coordination
Specialist with the United
Nations. His expertise led to his recently coordinating humanitarian aid to India, Nepal and Brazil, countries badly affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Given his experience in such roles,
Paul knew what to expect from such a complex international endeavour.
Over a 12-week period, he and a colleague coordinated with all Government departments including Taoisigh, the Emergent Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) in Brussels, DG Echo, transport companies, airlines, and airport authorities, while also dealing directly with the Irish ambassadors in both India and Brazil. The aid shipments they sent included oxygen ventilators, oxygen generators and PPE donated by HSE Global. In total, four large shipments were donated, utilising Antanov and 747 aircraft. As a result, many lives were saved and Paul and his colleagues have now been nominated for a Global Civil Service award, with the ceremony taking place in November.
For Paul, his work with DFB and the qualifications he acquired during his time there have stood him in good stead for this type of work.
“It shows you the grounding you can have, the training that comes with DFB, it gives you the ability and confidence to do a lot of jobs,” he says. “After 18 years in DFB you come across all scenarios and eventualities, so the grounding for what I do now was there in DFB. It gives me a unique perspective in my current role because I am a civil servant, but with a different outlook and background that another civil servant may not have because they have never been operational. I feel uniquely placed in terms of how I can see the world.”
STARTING OUT
Paul’s DFB career began in 2001 in the Tara Street Control Room, before he moved to B Watch in Finglas where he gained valuable experience.
“I had great times there,” he says. “It was a very busy station, going out to Ballymun and the Airport, but it was great because we had fires every night, which was good from a learning perspective.”
He moved to Phibsboro for a few years before returning to Tara Street as a Sub-officer on A Watch, but during his firefighting career he was
also seconded to Pre-Fire Planning for DFB for many years, and also developed the Major Emergency Management Pod, the on-site Coordination Centre for the Eastern Region, and he constantly strove to obtain qualifications across a range of disciplines and areas of expertise.
“I got my qualifications in tandem with working for DFB,” he tells me, “because I felt that even though there wasn’t very much free time, I wanted to spend it productively, so I took all of those courses to occupy and better myself.”
These qualifications include a Masters in Forensic Fire Scene Investigation, a Masters in Emergency Management, a degree in Business and Emergency Services, and a Postgrad in Fire Service Practice in Buildings, to name but a few.
“CFO Keeley had done the Masters in Emergency Management at DCU
Paul Rock prepares a large humanitarian aid shipment.
before me and raved about it, saying how good a course it was and how it gave a broader perspective in terms of civil protection and what that entails,” he tells me, detailing how this led on to other similar qualifications.
On the subject of the National Directorate for Fire Emergency Management, Paul tells me: “I had done my thesis for my Masters on mass fatality planning, and they were developing this as a core component,
The ERCC kept all stakeholders up to date on the progress of each shipment of aid.
The shipping of Irish Aid involved liaising with a number of Government departments, agencies and companies.
so I was asked if I would go across and work on that for a year. I have been there for seven years now!”
That role, and those with the EU and the UN have seen Paul work across the world, and although he sees it as a challenge to be on a roster of available experts and called up at a moment’s notice, he says: “You get a great satisfaction when you are able to help people who have been left devastated by emergencies of any description.”
As he says, his work now is an expansion of what he did in DFB – helping people in need, and Paul explains that the broader role called to him.
“When I went on secondment, I really enjoyed the work,” he says. “I do miss working with DFB, the camaraderie you used to have was great, but when I was on secondment I got to do a lot, and I just got the appetite for these and wanted to do more.
“That’s not to say DFB didn’t offer what I wanted,” he is quick to point out, “because it is a very challenging job, with great opportunities offered to everybody, but I saw my path going in a different direction.”
In his technical role as Assistant Fire Adviser, which involves formulating technical guidance and protocols that need to be developed, Paul says he achieved one of the things he is very proud of: the first National Fire Safety campaign in Ireland, which followed on from the Carrickmines tragedy.
“I was in a unique position to formulate that,” he tells me, “because I had the operational knowledge of what happens on the ground at fires, and was able to marry that together with the strategic outlook required from a fire protection point of view.
“Most people wouldn’t be familiar with the work I do, but they would be familiar with the consequences, such as with Carrickmines and the subsequent fire safety campaign. I work with the eight MEM regions in Ireland, creating a mass fatality
framework and providing guidance for all major emergency events such as flooding, severe weather, etc, and I am the focal point or national contact point in Ireland in relation to civil protection. I’m also part of the Director General for Ireland for Civil Protection, so my role is very varied, and sometimes the reason behind it is unpleasant, but necessary.”
This was very true of the humanitarian aid project for India, Nepal and Brazil.
AID
“I got a call from the emergency response coordination centre in Brussels,” he tells me. “All they told me was that there had been a consular discussion between the Irish ambassador in New Delhi and the EU delegation there, about possibly offering aid to India.
“India was in the middle of a second wave, and had activated the European Civil Protection mechanism, looking for member states and others around the world to offer oxygen equipment. I started ringing around the various departments and eventually found out that HSE Global had some of the equipment requested by the Indian authorities. From there, I worked with the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Transport, Revenue and Health, HSE Global, and any number of ambassadors and embassies, a huge amount of people to engage with, because we had no procedure for doing this.
“Humanitarian Aid is normally delivered through the Department of Foreign Affairs, but because this project had come through the European Civil Protection mechanism, I was thrust into a central role as coordinator.
“Myself and my colleague Karl Lawlor were the only two people working to liaise with all of those different agencies and embassies across multiple countries. Normally, you have at least five or six people in a European Civil Protection Team, but this was just two of us. Because I started it, and I had the knowhow, I just ran with it. I was asked if I wanted more people to help, but because it was all new, we were feeling in the dark, and I was always fearful that with a larger team something might fall through the cracks. It was very trying for 12 weeks working 24/7, but we did
Liaising with global health agencies to provide the aid needed.
Paul and a colleague prepare shipment as the enormous Antanov aircraft is readied for departure.
coordinate regularly with everybody involved. It wasn’t me trying to hog the limelight, I just felt it was easier for me to do what I did.
“Within the mechanism, there is a platform called the Common Emergency Communications and Information System, if any country in the world is in trouble and feels that
they need help. Two types of resource can be sent – people or equipment, experts or modules. The modules could be high-capacity pumping for flood relief or equipment for aerial firefighting, and expert teams can be deployed to assist with the receipt of international aid, to support the national agencies, not to take over.”
With Paul as coordinator, Ireland became the first member state to offer and land aid in India.
“We landed two very large aircraft delivering oxygen generators and concentrators, ventilators, and other oxygen therapy equipment,” Paul says, “and from me receiving the call, five days later we had that first plane landing in India. It did take the other member states by surprise because Ireland doesn’t normally offer aid on this scale through the European mechanism, and it was a real gesture. Thankfully, we were in a unique position because we had built up a lot of stock when developing field hospitals for COVID-19 that weren’t required in the end.”
A spillover from the COVID-19 crisis in India into Nepal affected that country’s rates badly, and they also activated the mechanism. Within weeks, another large aircraft landed in Nepal, before an enormous amount of medication was sent to Brazil by the end of June.
“As with India, it was an enormous logistical process,” Paul says. “You need to liaise with all of the agencies who can help because while you don’t have all the knowledge, you know where to get the knowledge to solve the problem.”
SATISFACTION
The aid was gratefully received, and Paul says he got great satisfaction from seeing the job through to the lifesaving conclusion. “I got a message from the Indian ambassador with a video of an oxygen generator being plugged in at a hospital, with all the Irish Aid logos on it,” he tells me, “and the feelgood factor was incredible.
You don’t want thanks for what you do, but to see things like that really gives you a boost.”
On the aid sent to Brazil, Paul says: “That donation will save 55,000 lives. They needed a muscle relaxant drug so people could be ventilated. The HSE had a stock of this in Ireland, and we were able to provide 47,000 vials to treat those 55,000 people effectively.
“That project was a bit more complicated but everybody pulled together to make it happen, no one person saying no. I didn’t hear that word ‘no’ in the eight weeks, which was great.”
The success of the entire operation has been recognised at every level, with Paul seeing the positive effects in the affected countries.
“The work involved and the cooperation seen was immense,” Paul says. “Our contributions have been recognised by the UN Security Council. I received lots of messages from people all around the world asking me to pass on thanks to everybody involved for what they did.”
This thanks came from all three countries who received aid, and from others worldwide, and Paul says he takes a huge amount of pride in the efforts of all involved.
Given what he has achieved, I ask Paul what he is most proud of throughout his career, and he is quick to tell me that it was actually the design of the garden of reflection in Phibsboro fire station, built in memory of Leon Rafferty and all other DFB members who have passed away, which he was able to do because he had previously studied in the Botanic Gardens, and worked in DCC Parks for a few years.
“I had to leave before I saw its completion, so others took over,” he says, “but that was what I am most proud of. I have been lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge, but the garden in Phibsboro will always be there for people to take a moment to themselves.”
PROGRESSION
Paul emphasises that the opportunities to make a valuable contribution on a global scale are there, and that firefighters are uniquely positioned to play a vital role.
“The family of firefighters across Europe are heavily involved in civil protection, and I think from our perspective we are only starting out on that journey,” he says. “There are a lot of training courses available for firefighters and anyone from the emergency services with regard to civil protection and becoming a mechanism expert, and I would encourage DFB members to embrace this.
“Ireland hosts an Operations Management course in the OBI, so we do offer training and there are a lot of options available to DFB members, once they are nominated by the CFO. If they are offered it, I would encourage them to take it because it is great to get experience on an international scale.”
With the message clear that further training and expertise is available, Paul once again encourages all DFB members to consider roles in civil protection and emergency management from within DFB. Apart from the personal achievements and progression, and the chance to provide a positive contribution on an international level, both of which can provide great satisfaction, you never know where in the world you might end up working.
