Fire Fighters in Leitrim Stand down from duty

Smokey Bear

Firstly hello ,

Just thought the people of Leitrim would be interested in this developing situation in regards to provision of Fire Cover in their County

Below is an extract of a press release from the Irish Fire & Emergency Services Association that was released detailing what is going on.

"All of Leitrim Fire Fighters to Stand down from Duty today over
Health and Safety Concerns
“Time. It’s a precious commodity, and it waits for no-one. When lives are on the line, seconds count. Fractions of seconds count.
Few individuals in our lives better understand the importance of time than the men and women of the Irish Fire Service . Highly qualified public servants, trained to handle crises affecting both people and property – often simultaneously.
But the lives of the community in Leitrim and the Fire Fighters who serve them are being put at risk by the action of the County Manager and the Chief Fire Officer of Leitrim.”Says John Kidd of the Irish Fire & Emergency Services Association.
The Irish Fire & Emergency Service Association can reveal that vital equipment required for responding to incidents has been removed from all Fire engines in Co Leitrim. The Chief Fire Officer has given an order to reduce the number of Breathing Apparatus sets from 6 down to 4 on all Fire appliances in Leitrim. The number of cylinders has also been reduced to only two spare cylinders for each fire engine. Also thermal imaging cameras that help fire fighter locate victims in fires quickly have been removed as well.
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The equipment has been removed in order for a controversial training course to take place in a training centre in Tullamore. Leitrim Chief Fire officer has stood down 12 FireFighters today over their refusal to attend a Breathing Apparatus course when they sought clarification on how it was being run. IFESA have questioned aspects of this training and the major Health and Safety implications in the running of these courses.IFESA is calling for an immediate investigation into the action of the Chief Fire Officer.
“His action has diminished the capability of Fire Fighters to save lives,the potential is there that lives could be lost.The Chief Fire Officer has reduced by 50% the time that fire fighters will be able to spend in a fire trying to save lives by removal of spare cylinders and also a 33% reduction in the number of Fire Fighters who will be able to enter a fire due to the removal of breathing apparatus sets.This directly affects the resources that the Officer in Charge at a scene can deploy in order to effect a rescue attempt.”Says John Kidd of the Irish Fire & Emergency Service Association
“All Fire Fighters in Leitrim are threatening to stand down from duty on Health & Safety grounds today unless this vital equipment is put back on the Fire Engines.There is no longer a safe system of work in place and no risk assessment is in place to cover the removal of equipment.This will leave no fire cover in place for the whole County unless the County Manager and Chief Fire Officer reverse their order to remove the equipment.The equipment has been missing for a number of days now and nothing has been done.It was an extremely hard decision to come to , in the removal of our service to the public but some thing has to be done to safe guard our lives and the lives of the people we serve.”Says a Leitrim Fire Fighter.
If a life is lost IFESA will hold the Chief Fire Officer and County Manager personally responsible due to their actions.
IFESA will be seeking an immediate meeting with Minister Phil Hogan to address this serious issue and will continue to call for the establishment of a National Fire & Rescue service for Ireland."
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Regards

Smokey Bear

mayojimjam

Let the people who read this be clear....what Smokey Bear left out...IFESA DOES NOT REPRESENT OR NEGOCIATE ON BEHALF OF THE LEITRIM FIRE FIGHTERS


The only recognised Representative associations are SIPTU / NRFA

It is misleading and unhelpful for an organisation, which has no input what so ever into the negociations or outcome of any negociations, to be making statments which may lead people to believe that they do.

Smokey Bear

Firstly welcome to Boards Mayojimjam hope we will hear more from you or is this a once off appearance??

Interesting first post.

Secondly the press release from IFESA is factually.
Having enquired with IFESA as to why they got involved their motives are quite clear.
After being made aware of a potently serious breach to Health and Safety legislation ,that would affect Fire Fighter and more importantly the citizens of Leitrim they could not just sit there and do nothing.

What IFESA do as a professional association is ensure that its members interests are looked after but more importantly ensure that where a clear breach of Health and Safety is observed to take action to rectify it.As in this case no risk assessment was conducted into removal of equipment or training.

When it comes to health and safety IFESA do not care what union hat you wear or who you are.If you ask them for help, advice and guidance on Health and Safety issues it will be given no questions asked.This is what happen in this case.After all members in the Fire & Emergency Service job is to ensure the wellbeing of the citizens we serve.

Health and safety is black and white it is not negotiable as you would suggest.

The citizens of Co Leitrim deserve to know that their lives were put at risk by the actions of the Chief Fire Officer and the County manager.Its not their fault that others did not see the importance of highlighting the danger of the actions taken by the Chief Fire Officer and County Manager.It is my understanding from talking to IFESA that they will continue to ensure that decision makers will be held accountable for their actions.

Regards and keep safe all in Co Leitrim

Smokey Bear
(My views or comments have nothing to do with IFESA. I am but a Public Servant who's job is to keep you all safe good night sleep well knowing the truth of whats going on)

mayojimjam

As I said on my earlier post the IFESA does not have any representative or negotiating recognition in relation to the issues in Leitrim and it is misleading to the public to sugest that it does.

SIPTU / NRFA are quite capable of dealing with these issues and outside interferance is not helpful.


The amount of appearances I make here has absolutely no relevance what so ever.

Smokey Bear

Case and point.

Due to the silence of SIPTU / NRFA and members belief of them NOT BEING capable of dealing with these issues they turned to outside interference to help them with their issue.

The members of SIPTU / NRFA came to IFESA looking for help ,advice and guidance in a Health and Safety issue.It was given no questions asked to what union or group they belong to.

The same problem exits nationally thats why so many have backed IFESA.

Diverging from main point:

THIS IS A PUBLIC SAFETY CONCERN The County manager and Chief Fire Officer have put the lives of Citizens of Co.Leitrim and Fire Fighter at risk.Its that simple their actions as public servants are open to scrutiny and it is now Government Policy that their actions will be accountable.Its a pity this accountability does not take place in certain Unions.

Good Night

Smokey Bear

muffler

Smokey Bear and mayojimjam - your respective representative organisations can sort this out among themselves but Im afraid I wont be allowing this forum to be used for the purpose of point scoring in some form of dispute.

Thread locked.




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