COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE

Monday, January 23, 2023

QUESTION NO. 11

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

"To ask the CEO to confirm that Belgard Fire Station is properly equipped to deal with all emergencies, and will he appreciate the interest and concerns in the matter, and make a statement?"

REPLY:

The Chief Fire Officer has been contacted in respect of Fire Brigade services and level of resources available in the County and in particular Belgard Fire Station. His response is as follows:

Resources Specifically Assigned to South Dublin County Council Functional Area:

DFB’s Bravo District (District responsible for the fire cover South Dublin County Council) is the area covered by Dolphins Barn and Tallaght Fire stations. Depending on the nature and location of an emergency, crews from any one of these stations will respond.

Tallaght Fire Station has two Class-B Water Tenders. These are appliances are crewed by an officer and four/five firefighters, one firefighter acting as the driver / pump operator. They are equipped with a pump and a variety of firefighting and road traffic collision rescue equipment.

Resources in DFB Bravo District:

Station	Location	Appliances / Vehicles	Personnel
No 2 District Station	Dolphins barn	Water Tender Class B    x2 Ambulance                      x 1 Emergency Rescue Tender x 1 District Officers Command Vehicle x 1	District Officer    x 1 Station Officer    x 1 Sub Officer          x 2 Firefighters         x 13
No 7 Station	Tallaght	Water Tender Class B  x 2 Ambulance                      x 1	Station Officer      x 1 Sub Officer            x 1 Firefighters           x 11

Additionally, any resources required to augment these resources will be sent from adjoining districts / stations as would specialised fire appliances required. Specialist fire appliances include, turn-table-ladders, emergency tenders, foam tenders etc.

Turntable Ladder appliances are on the Pre-Determined Attendance for high-rise developments for all areas of the city and county.  These appliances can be in attendance in the Tallaght area within the national guideline travel times for Special Aerial Appliances.  However, we are currently reviewing our Aerial Appliance deployment model for the city, which may see these appliances being redeployed to other station areas in the future.

A new 42 metre ladder will come into service shortly in DFB with a second 42m ladder on order with expected delivery of the 3rd Quarter next year.  As part of ongoing fire service familiarisation visits (each station undertakes a programme of pre-fire planning and familiarisation visits) and exercises dry riser and hydrant inspection and testing takes place.