Tallaght apartment fire ‘demonstrates the need for greater resources’

TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has said that the recent fire in Belgard Square should serve as a demonstration of how we need greater resourcing and staffing of our fire services.
 
Teachta Crowe said: “I am immensely glad that no one was seriously injured in the fire in Belgard Square recently. I thank all the members of Dublin Fire Brigade who attended the scene. The incident should serve as a demonstration of how we need greater resourcing and staffing of our fire services. “There were eight fire brigade units on scene during the height of the response and this would constitute the majority of Dublin Fire Brigade’s strength. If the extremely unfortunate was to occur and a second major incident to occur simultaneously, this would stretch DFB’s response capability to the brink.
 
“The ladders that rescued people from their balconies had to come out from Tara St which is an incredible distance for emergency services and creates the possibility for serious delays. We only have two turntable ladders in the city. There should be more ladders and they should be distributed appropriately based on coverage. This is especially important as we build apartments higher all around the city. “In a city of well over a million inhabitants, we need a fire service that has the capability to respond to more than one major incident at a time. The current situation where appliances are leaving stations on calls with less than a full complement of firefighters is not safe for the teams and hinders their ability to serve the public as they are trained to do.”