Intro to the Fire Brigades of Ireland

Dublin Fire Brigade fire helmet with face shield lowered

 This December I went to the Republic of Ireland to tour some of it’s fire brigades and learn about compartment firefighting. I ended up visiting four stations in Dublin, and five other cities’ fire brigades: Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Killarney and Galway.

Limerick Fire Station

Basically I would show up, ring the bell, introduce myself as an American Firefighter, and request a quick tour. This was a verbal Trojan horse to get me though the door, once inside I would proceed to pick their brains for everything they knew about compartment firefighting. Fortunately, I never met and Irish firefighter who wasn’t happy to share what they knew with me, so this strategy was very effective. I will get into the specifics of what I learned in future entries, but a brief summary of my experience in Ireland would be as follows.

The Fire Service in Republic of Ireland is very uniform, equipment, training operation and attitude were
consistent across the country. There are no volunteer firefighters in Ireland, but the majority of firefighters are paid-on-call. Meaning they do not staff the fire station, but when they attend training or respond for call, they are financially compensated.

All the firefighters I met were enthusiastic about their profession, and could fluently talk about their brigades' tactics and training. Compared to Americans, the Irish have very specific ways they try to accomplish different operations, and detailed protocols regarding safety and accountability. Though our counties equipment differs greatly, the most significant difference I noticed was attitude. I will write more on these subjects in later entries.

Crest of the Cork City Fire Brigade

This was a successful trip, thanks mostly to the Irish’s well known hospitality. I hope you will enjoy the rest of my entries.