Revealed: What Firemen have to put up with.

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | news report

Sunday September 10, 2006 15:25

by Max

Firemen responding to callouts in Dublin regularly get stabbed with used syringes or have their vehicles stoned by youths, a new book has revealed.

Firemen responding to callouts in Dublin regularly get stabbed with used syringes or have their vehicles stoned by youths, a new book has revealed.

Firecall – True Stories of Irish Firefighting & Rescue explores the daily intimidation and violence facing officers in the line of duty.

Fireman Dave Connolly from Finglas Station – dubbed Fort Apache by officers - was once stabbed by a used syringe and endured an agonising wait for blood test results.

He told the book: “I had to endure several weeks of hell while I waited for my blood test results. It was constantly on my mind.

“I was nervous with my family, worried about using cups or cutlery that they might be using. It’s an incredibly distressing event for anyone.

“What makes it worse is that it’s something caused during the course of your work, helping somebody who needed help. That’s the reward I got in that case.”

Mr Connolly was taking a patient to hospital when they suddenly got violent and stabbed him with their used syringe.

Blood tests were clear for any transmissible disease.

Officers at Dolphin’s Barn Station regularly get pelted with bottles and stones while trying to put out bonfires near council flats.

Tallaght Station was once going through one windscreen a week due to stone-throwing youths, it was also revealed.

Fire engines would respond to callouts in lanes, a vehicle would trap it from behind and it would suddenly come under attack.

One fireman, Paul Carolan said: “The very fact that we are attacked in the course of trying to help other people shows that we don’t enjoy the same public standing which firefighters do in other countries.

“Firefighters in the US and Canada do not have the threat of attacks hanging over them every time they answer a callout. It simply doesn’t happen there.”

In Dolphin’s Barn Station, thieves would sometimes ring in hoax 999 calls, then ransack the building when the firemen left.

Fireman Gerry Sterio said: “We had cases here where we’d actually come back from a callout and met guys carrying a television out of the station.”

However the book also contains happy stories such as when two officers from Dolphin’s Barn once delivered a baby for a foreign national woman in the back of their fire ambulance.

Fireman John Lynch said: “There are some things that you can’t train for. When we were doing our emergency medical training, eventualities such as this were done with a mannequin in a training room...but actually dealing with a live situation at the side of the road with a new born baby in difficulty and a mum in discomfort who you’re barely able to communicate with, is a different matter entirely.”

The 200-page book follows crews that once battled blazes but now responds to a wide range of incidents such as road collisions and floods.

It also recalls well known fires like the Stardust Whiddy Island, Slane Castle and Trinity College.

Published by Gill & Macmillan today, it is written by Dubliner Ruairi Kavanagh, who previously edited Firecall, the official magazine of the Irish fire and rescue services.