Firefighters deserve our thanks for unstinting work

People often think of the Fire Service mainly in terms of firefighters saving lives and protecting property when a blaze breaks out. This, of course, is true, but there are many other examples of its good work. The latest data reveals that firefighters have rescued record numbers of people here in the past year, but nearly 10 times more individuals were rescued from non-fire incidents.

Nearly 1,700 people, just over 141 per month, were rescued in Northern Ireland between April 2017 and March 2018, a 12% increase on the previous year. We congratulate our firefighters for their courage. We recognise and thank them for all their work.