Staffing reforms mean just one fire tender is now based at Clonmel Fire Station

Restructuring of the country’s retained fire services has resulted in the number of fire tenders based at Clonmel Fire Station falling from two to one, Tipperary County Council’s July meeting heard.

Clonmel councillors Siobhán Ambrose and Pat English raised this reduction in the number of fire tenders at the fire station serving the county’s largest town at the Council meeting in Nenagh.

Cllr English asked when Clonmel Fire Station will get a second fire tender again as the population of Clonmel required that number of tenders for emergencies.

Tipperary Fire Service’s Chief Fire Officer Dave Carroll responded that in 2022 a national review was conducted into the retained fire service.

This review, the strike by retained fire fighters nationally this time last year and the set of proposals from the Workplace Relations Commission last August changed the face of the retained fire service in Ireland.

He said the outcome of the review and WRC proposals was that retained fire fighters who previously were on-call 24/7 365 days of the year are now rostered on-call 24 weeks of the years.

The service had now moved to a model where you have “single pump” fire stations.

The Fire Chief outlined that Tipperary Fire Service had carried out an assessment of risk categories for areas and categorised each of the county’s 12 fire stations based on a number of criteria such as the population they serve, the types and numbers of incidents and strategic risks. Clonmel was classed as a medium risk station.

For towns with populations between 10,000 and 40,000, he explained it’s required that a fire appliance be able to attend an emergency within 10 minutes of call out with a second appliance located within a 20 minutes travel time.

Mr Carroll explained the one fire tender model was piloted in Clonmel, Cashel and Nenagh and attendance standards as set out in the Keeping Communities Safe policy are being met.

It is now in place pretty much across the country now, he said.

He said he was satisfied that Tipperary Fire Service has the correct standards of fire fighting cover in place in Clonmel.

“We have a much more robust service now. We are noticing the difference. It’s much easier to attract fire fighters. We are meeting the work-life balance better now,” he added.

When further queried by Cllr Ambrose, he reiterated there is only one fire tender based in Clonmel Fire Station but stressed the station still has other types of fire fighting vehicles to support it based there. The second fire appliance, if required in an emergency, will come from Cahir and Cahir depending on where the incident takes place, he added.