Droghedabusiestfire stationinthecounty
DROGHEDA was the busiest fire station in Louth last year according to statistics circulated to members of Louth County Council at last week’s monthly meeting.
Firefighters in Drogheda responded to 442 call outs, while Dundalk Fire Station received 380 call outs and Ardee 129.
In total, 1,141 calls were made to the county’s fire service. Louth Fire Service attended to 129 incidents in Co Meath which represented over 11 per cent of all call outs or 29% of incidents reported to Drogheda Fire Station. Fire fighters from Ardee responded to 84 calls, Carlingford to 49 and Dunleer to 49.
There were increases in the numbers of road traffic accidents and flooding incidents, while the number of car fires showed a decrease on the previous year.
There were a total of 167 fire accidents with Dundalk Fire Service called out to 55 road traffic accidents while Drogheda responded to 41, Ardee to 20, Carlingford to 10 and Dunleer to 9.
Fire fighters in Drogheda responded to 39 house fires, eight more than their colleagues in Dundalk. Drogheda also dealt with 24 general fires, 104 skip fires, nine incidents of flooding and one explosion. They were also called upon to make a scene safe on one occasion, and responded to five calls for river rescue.
The fire service also provided ambulance assistance on a total of 60 occasions, with Drogheda responding to 27 calls and Dundalk to 15.
Clrl Joanna Byrne commended the work done by the fire service over the last year/18 months saying it had been a taxing time as they had to deal with callouts to fire bombs in Drogeda.
Cllr John Sheridan wanted to know if there was a timescale for the delivery of the new fire station in Dunleer.
He was told that while the announcement regarding a new fire station for Dunleer had been made fire years ago, there was no funding for it. The Council was currently assessing sites including the current sites.