DFB responds to 7,759 incidents in six months
DUBLIN Fire Brigade responded to over 7,750 incidents in the first half of the year with 85 new firefighters being recruited to the force.
Following an extensive recruitment campaign earlier in 2023, a panel of 216 potential firefighters was created with two classes getting underway.
At the recent meeting of South Dublin County Council, in response to a question posed by Cllr Charlie O’Connor, the local authority gave a rundown of the Dublin Fire Brigade services.
“The first class of 37 recruit firefighters from this panel passed out in September and a second class of 48 recruits will commence training in late October,” the council said.
More recruits are expected to commence training in 2024 with classes already budgeted for firefighters and Emergency Service Controllers, according to the local authority.
A recruitment campaign for Emergency Service Controllers (ESC) was also advertised for earlier this year, with ESCs expected to be deployed into the East Region Communications Centre.
“A panel of 52 ESC’s was subsequently created,” the council said.
“The first class commenced in early September with the second class due to commence in late October 2023.
“Discussions on required manning levels into the future are ongoing between management and unions.”
While these recruitment campaigns were ongoing, members of Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) responded to a total of 7,759 incidents.
Of that, a minimum of one DFB resource was deployed, with the ambulance responding to 6,875 and firefighters responding to 884.
In giving a detailed overview of those 884 fire services incident types, small fires were the most common with 254, following by 229 alarm related incidents.
After that, car related incidences were the most common at 85 incidents. DFB deployed special services to respond to 22 road traffic incidents and made 10 scenes safe while one oil spill was responded to, six water leaks, three gas leaks and there were six animal rescues.
There was a grand total of 10,955 appliance mobilisations, with fire service mobilising 2,014 times and ambulance service mobilising 8,941 times.
“DFB are committed to ensuring that the Councils and residents alike will remain proud of their Fire & Ambulance service,” the council concluded.
