The Leitrim Fire Brigade is a multi-skilled fire fighting and fire safety force with a capacity to deal with emergencies of many types. Through training and education the Brigade is developing an increased awareness of fire safety within the community at large. In addition the Brigade contributes to improving the fire safety of the built environment by control of developments and an inspection programme.
The five units of the Leitrim Fire Brigade, stationed at Manorhamilton, Drumshanbo, Ballinamore, Mohill and Carrick on Shannon, attended to approximately 300 incidents every year.
With the numbers of chimney fires dropping back quite substantially, a steady increase has been recorded in the special service and Road Traffic Accident attendances, vehicles fires, outdoor and building fires.
Community Fire Safety
Large places of assembly including all discotheques, most of the community halls and some licensed premises are inspected by Senior Fire Officers every year to ensure that the fire safety standards were being upheld. Court appearances were made and objections raised where necessary to ensure that public assembly buildings were brought up to an acceptable standard for members of the public.
In excess of 250 planning applications were dealt with by the Fire Service during the year and some 50 Fire Safety Certificates were issued for new buildings under the Building Control Legislation. The developments ranged from shopping centres to apartment blocks, hotels, commercial ventures, schools and colleges. Each development was assessed at the design stage to ensure fire safety measures were included in the design, and the project was awarded a Fire Safety Certificate based on good quality design.
Fire Services Staff
A word of thanks should be recorded to all the Officers and Fire Fighters and their families who man the telephones to receive 999 calls 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. This type of dedication ensures that all emergency calls throughout the county are received quickly and Brigades dispatched rapidly to the incident. The new Computer Aided Mobilisation Project was implemented earlier this year, all emergency calls will be handled from Castlebar.
The breakdown of the personnel in each brigade is as follows:
Carrick-on-Shannon 12 Retained Firefighters
Mohill 9 Retained Firefighters
Drumshanbo 9 Retained Firefighters
Ballinamore 9 Retained Firefighters
Manorhamilton 9 Retained Firefighters