Kerry Fire & Rescue FIRE CAll Story

As the central headquarters for the County Kerry Fire and Rescue Service as well as having to ensure that high profile events such as The Rose of Tralee run smoothlv, the firelighters at Tralee Fire Station are certainly kept busy. Donal Guerin has worked there for the last forty years. "In Tralee, we have as good if not the best range of equipment, appliances and trained staff in the country. We've spent vast amounts of money on our fire service and we need to thank our county manager and our public representatives and of course our Chief Fire Officer who has to make a case for what we need.

"As Co. Kerry's Fire Headquarters, Tralee Station has nine outlying fire stations. Tralee, Killarney and l.istowel are all two pump stations with a staff of 15 while the remaining stationsat Ballybunion, CastleIsland, Killorglin, Cahcrciveen, Dingle, Kenmare and Sneem arc single appliance stations with a staff of 9. The county of Kerrv also has 3 volunteer squads. These are located at Tarbot, Castlegregory and Bjllylongford. Tthese volunteer squads are unique in the country. The local people are entirely responsible for purchasing the sites and buildings for the stations from their own fundraising. Each of the three Squads have their own station, a class B watertender and they are fully trained and insured. The only fundamental difference between these volunteers and any other retained firelighter is that they don't get paid. Further testimony to the level of commitment of the Kerry people!

The Crew
"On a daily basis Tralee station is manned by our Chief Fire Officer Kevin Caffery, four Assistant Chief Fire Officers, two prevention fire officers (John Hegarty and Vincent Hussey), two operational fire officers (Michael Forrest and Donal Guerinn) and four clerical assistants. We also have a full time station officer and sub station officer, 2 part time driver mechanics, a part time sub officer and 9 retained Fire officers. We cover an area of 800 square kilometres and are responsible for the area from Kerry Head to Brandon Head and half way from Tralee to I.istowel including CastleIsland and the north Side of the Sliabh Mish mountains.

Recruitment
"We are just after recruiting 13 new firelighters. They have successfully completed the first part of their training which is a two week recruits course. This is a general course in firefighting which gives them the basics. The next phase of their training takes place in the breathing apparatus facility in Sligo. After this they get taken into the fire service and are sent out to their own stations on a probationary period for 12 months. They then come back for a three day end of probation course and each station officer then does a written report on the recruit. If this is satisfactory he or she is taken onboard. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to become a recruit. A big commitment is no longer enough to get into the fire service now. Better standards of education and high levels of fitness are also demanded. We no longer deal with fires only. We now need to have a high level of expertise and training to use sophisticated equipment and deal with RTA's and chemical fires.

Equipment
"We have two fully equipped Mercedes dass B water tenders, a hydraulic platform. An emergency tender and a new first response 4x4 vehicle. This is a Mitsubishi jeep with a carrying capacity
of four. It has a high pressure pump mounted at the back with a tank that can carry 150 gallons of water. It's ideal for the likes of bedroom fires where you have a room on fire with
great heat. It can prevent a small fire from becoming a very big one. This small amount of water at high pressure will cool the room very quickly and helps to reduce the temperature of the fire. It's a new concept and we are the first station in the county to have this vehicle. Depending on the incident, it can be advised that only tin- jeep is needed.In the case of a more serious fire, it can be the first vehicle to reach the incident.
There is a new marina in Tralee that has a canal flowing into it from Blenerville. Consequently for canal and harbour rescue work we have a 3.3 metre Yamaha inflatable boat. We also ha\e a 10 metre inflatable walkway for mud flaps and ice rescue that can be used over water and a lot of rope rescue equipment for industrial and other types of rescue

Incidences
"Naturally, being a firelighter, you are exposed to numerous dangerous incidents as part of your daily routine, bit I would h.i\e to sav an incident that sticks out in my mind in terms of the size of the fire and the risk involved would be the fire at Baileys Corner in Tralee. This occurred about 28 years ago. A fire started in a public house on the corner
of Ash Street. It was a nightmare of a fire and it spread both right and left. A whole block in the town of Tralee was at risk of going up but we managed to prevent this from happening. It took us about 4 hours to get it under control but we did so in the end.
Another sizeable tire was in Makem and Mouldings on the top of Rock Street, Tralee where they make the plastic containers for hoovers. This was a big factory Fire that went on from about 11am in the morning until 8pm at night. Thankfully we managed to contain the Fire to the factory itself. Of course you can also have relatively small fires that result in terrible loss of life. That is always the greatest tragedv

Festivals
"As one of the gateways to the Ring of Kerry and venue of the world famous Rose of Tralee Festival, the town sees a massive influx of tourists during the summer months when its population can double or even triple. At these times too, so do the risks. The biggest risk area is the Ring of Kerry. If you look at the number of coaches that pass the Ring every day you can imagine what would happen if one crashes, it would be devastating. We will be holding a major emergency exercise here in May Other specific risks come with the number of festivals and fairs that we have in the area throughout the year. Whenever you have a large number of people in one area for a number of days and nights it can be worrying. On high risk nights we have a standby and we take a lot of extra precautions. With the Rose of Tralee for example this would be on the Rose selection nights or the evening of the parade. The problem at these times is getting our officers into and out of the fire station. The amount of people and traffic on the roads can greatly affect our response times. There is also a great deal of co-operation at these times. Every morning there is a meeting of the section heads, the civil defence, the ambulance people, the gardai and ourselves so everyone is fully aware of what's happening and what needs to be done. Our chief fire officer is also in the civil defence and needless to say we work in unison with them and we are always informed as to what the other is doing.

Changing Times
"In the forty years I have been with Tralee Fire Station, I have witnessed a huge amount of changes in the Tralee area. Modern day firefighters don't appreciate what they've got. There was a time when the station officers car used to tow the trailer pumps and you had to do your best. Now fire appliances we're using are worth in the region of £180,000 and that's just for the engine itself the bones of another £100,000 of equipment on top of' that. So every time you see a new fire engine you are looking at £250,000 on the road.

Problems
"One of' the biggest problems facing the tire scnicc has come as result of the celtic tiger. There are too many cars on the road. If every member of mv family had a car there would be 7 cars outside my door and this is the case with a lot of people now. When all these cars are on the road together the whole place stops! This is also interfering with our response times and trying to get our crews into the fire stations and out to the emergencies without hitting a wall of traffic is becoming more and more difficult.

Continuing Improvements
"With the town of Tralee continually growing so too are Tralee Fire Service. At the moment we have plans to extend the station here. Our current building is a single storey and we are planning to build onto the Roof with an additional number of bays to house the tire appliances, This development is at the drawing board stage. Training of course is also constantly ongoing so That we are up-to-date with all the latest first aid and response techniques.