Unmanned, rural fire stations were dispatched to attend a serious housefire just outside Waterford City, despite the Waterford City fire station in Kilbarry being closer and having 24/7 staffing.
This claim emerged during the latest Council Meeting for the Metropolitan Area and was first raised by Councillor Jim Griffin.
“I have to commend the fire service for getting there,” said Cllr Griffin. “My issue is that fire tenders that were dispatched to the fire at the time, were a considerable distance from the house event though we had Waterford City fire station closest as the crow flies.”
Cllr Griffin speculated that his decision may have been made due to the old borough boundaries, given that the house is just beyond the borough boundary for the city.
“I wonder do the dispatchers from Limerick Control, do they go by borough boundary, or do they look at the Eircode, or what way do they do it?” he asked.
“If it is going by the borough boundary, I would ask that we seriously look at changing that,” he continued. “Because it could lead to someone getting seriously hurt or perhaps our fire service teams getting there just a little bit later than possibly what it should be.
“This particular house is a couple of hundred metres outside the borough boundary. Unfortunately, the woman in the house is after having three surgeries now for skin grafting,” Cllr. Griffin said.
“I feel whoever dispatched the fire tender, if it had of been from Waterford City Fire Service, there wouldn’t have been as much damage done. But that’s no act or part to play on the fire service, they have done tremendous work on the night,” he said.
“But I think we should seriously look at how emergency services are dispatched right across the sector, the ambulance, everyone,” Cllr. Griffin added.
PDA
Mayor for the Metropolitan Area, Cllr. Adam Wyse, lent his support to Cllr Griffin on the issue, citing ‘serious concerns’ having spoken with the family.
Cllr Mary Roche asked for a report into the PDA system, while suggesting that the issue may have been caused by outdated district boundaries that were replaced in 2014 when Waterford Council became the single local authority for the county.
“A house literally outside the boundary of what was Waterford City had a serious incident last Thursday night. The emergency call was directed to both Tramore and Dunmore East services whereas the manned 24/7 Waterford City fire station which is far closer wasn’t tagged in on that call,” Cllr. Roche said.
“What I’m asking for Mayor is a report on the current PDA, pre-determined attendance policy procedure in the council please. I have a suspicion that the tasking of different services might be a hangover from the pre-amalgamation days, but that doesn’t pertain any more, and I think the closest service, particularly if that’s a manned service, should always be called in situations like that,” she suggested.
The Munster Express contacted the Council for comment on the situation, including a breakdown of which fire stations service Waterford areas.
A spokesperson for the council told this newspaper: “Waterford Fire Service was alerted to a house fire at Duagh, Waterford at 20:37 hours on the evening of 9th April. The fire was responded to by brigades from Tramore and Dunmore East. Waterford City and County Council are continuing to review this matter”.
The PDA system has been mentioned a number of times in the Dáil, perhaps the most insightful explanation came in reply to Donegal TD, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, who in June 2020, received a written reply from Minister of State at the Department of Housing at the time, TD Damien English. The outline provided an outline of the PDA emergency response system.
“The provision of fire services is a statutory function of fire authorities under the provisions of the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003. The receipt of calls from the public for assistance by the fire service is provided on a 'shared service' basis by three Regional Communications Centres (RCCs) at Limerick, Castlebar and Dublin,” Minister English said.
“The vast majority of incidents requiring fire service attendance have a pre-defined weighting for Pre-Determined Attendances (PDA) which guide the appropriate fire service resources to be initially deployed. The predefined weighting sets out the specification of amount and type of appliances that are appropriate to deploy to a particular type of emergency.
“I am informed that in some limited exceptional cases incidents may be initially referred to the Rostered Senior Fire Officer (RSFO) in charge, before a decision to mobilise is made and that these types of cases would likely involve low-risk incidents, for example, animal rescue.
“While each Fire Authority has a PDA database the officer in charge has the discretion to enhance that deployment or not,” Minister English added.
AARON KENT
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme
