Hereunder is an outline of the ... Fire and Rescue services in IrelandThis 1. Different kinds of fire brigades 2. Organisation of the fire and rescue service 4. Description of fire authorities 10- The key facts of the Fire Service in Ireland as regards Operations 1- Different kinds of
Fire-Brigades The Fire Service in Ireland is organised at Local Authority level. There are 39 Fire Authorities of which 32 are County Councils, 5 are County Boroughs (main cities) 2 are borough corporations and 2 are Urban District Councils. In general, all the County Councils have retained Fire Brigades i.e. paid part-timers, with full time Fire Brigades ('professional') in the cities. There is a mixture of professional / retained fire-fighters in Borough Corporation and Urban District Councils. There are no regional Fire Brigades. Fire Brigades are organised at the primary tier of local government i.e. the County Council and / or Borough Corporation, and delivers the Service to the lower tiers of Local Government i.e. district councils. Regional Government has no role in the Fire Service, while National Government has an advisory / legislative role and establishes public policy for the Fire Service. Local Government implements national policy at local level. 2- Organisation of the
Fire Service There are no 'fire-cover-standards' established in Ireland which might define the number of appliances and firefighters required to attend at incidents in different risk areas. In general the country is covered in an ad-hoc basis with fire brigade units located in most mid to large towns. The types of appliances in use are as follows: - Water Tenders - so called Pumping Appliances - Specialist appliances including Aerial Appliances (Hydraulic Platforms and Turn Table ladders) and Emergency Tenders. - Other Special Appliances include Water Tankers, Foam Tankers, Rapid Intervention Vehicles. - Dublin Fire Brigade (only) employs Ambulances as part of an integrated Fire And Emergency Ambulance Service in Dublin City. The appliances and equipment generally comply with British standards. 3- Tasks of the Fire Service (a) Operations -to provide a Fire Brigade i.e. an operational Fire Service, to protect life and property in the event of the occurrence of fire, road traffic accidents, hazardous materials accidents, etc. (b) Fire Safety -to implement a Fire Safety policy throughout its functional area. While the "duty of care" in respect to Fire Safety in Buildings rests with the Owner/Occupier under the Fire Service Act, 1981, the Fire Authorities have various powers of inspection and enforcement for Fire Prevention/safety measures in existing Buildings. Table 1
sets out for example the various Fire Safety inspections in existing buildings
for 1992 carried out by the Fire Authorities based on the returns to the
Department of Environment. It should noted that the Fire Authorities also have
an inspection role with regard Dangerous Substances - in particular Petroleum under
Dangerous Substances Act, 1972 and associated regulations (1979) as shown also
in Table
1. Fire Safety in New Buildings is covered by the Building Control Act (1990). The Minister of the Environment and Local Government introduced the Building Regulations and Building Control Regulations (1991)- subsequently revised in 1997- which came into law on 1st June 1992. Table 1
Inspections by Fire Authorities in Existing Premises 1992
In essence, Fire Safety in new commercial/public buildings is regulated by the "Fire Safety Certificate" under the Building Control System where the Fire Safety design of new works is formally approved or certified by the County Councils/ Borough Corporations as Building Control Authorities (which are the same as Fire Authorities) and the builders/developers then construct the buildings to the specification/ design approved by the Authority. It should be noted that the building is not certified by the Building Control Authority. There is an element of self regulation where the builder/developer is obliged to construct the Building in accordance with the Building Regulations Parts A-M . In addition the Department of Environment has also published Technical Guidance Documents for all parts (including Fire Safety )of the Building Regulations. Construction in compliance with the recommendations of these technical Guidance Documents is regarded, prima-facie, as evidence of compliance with the legal requirements of the Building Regulations. Hence, these Technical Guidance Documents form a common technical template for Architects and Fire Officers - who are acting as Building Control Officials - in plan-checking as part of the Building Control System. The Fire/ Building Control Authorities may inspect buildings to ensure that builders are complying with the requirements of the Building Regulations. Table 2 sets out the number of Fire Safety Certificates processed by Building Control Authorities from 1992 to 1996. The interesting fact is the very low proportion of refusals of Fire Safety Certificates by Local Authorities. There is no third party appeal (as in the Planning process). The only parties to the Building Control process are the Local Authority and the applicant and the latter party has the right to appeal a decision of the Authority to 'An Bord Pleanala' - the national planning appeals board. The duty of care to comply with Building Regulations rests jointly with the builder/developer and client and not with the Authority. The Authorities (as under Fire Services Act for existing buildings), using their powers of inspection under the Building Control Act, may enforce implementation of the requirements of the Building Regulations on new buildings through the Courts. It should be noted that as part of national policy, the primary objective of Building Regulations with regard to fire safety is protection of life and not protection of property - which, in the view of Government is a matter for the Insurance Industry. Table 2 Fire
Safety Certificate Applications processed by L.A.’s since 1992
Fire Safety
Guidance and National Fire Prevention Policy Certain categories of buildings are not subject to legislation e.g. private houses. It is the owner’s and/or occupier’s responsibility to provide for the fire safety of their families in their own homes. The Fire Service, through public awareness campaigns and Fire Prevention (advice and guidance to the public) is now becoming involved to a greater degree in public education and promotion Fire Safety. The National Safety Council which incorporates Road and Fire Safety is the body primarily charged at National level with publicity campaigns for Fire safety. However, developments such as local radio have altered the way in which the public can be influenced through the media and Fire Authorities are now getting involved much more, in co-operation with the National Safety Council in public information campaigns. This is particularly true in relation to the installation of smoke detection systems in private houses. It should be noted that 50% of the Budget for the National Safety Council activities is funded by the Insurance Industry. It should also be noted that under the Fire Services Act ,Fire Authorities may give advice to the public on Fire Safety matters, but there is no legal obligation on them in this regard. Table 3 sets out the break-down between operational and Fire Prevention personnel in the Fire Service in 1995 Table 3 Summary
Fire Brigade Personnel 1995
There are in excess of 100 specialist officers engaged in Fire Prevention throughout the country. The majority of these officers are also trained to take on operational duties and in particular Command and Control at large scale Incidents. However the bulk of Fire Service personnel are engaged in the operational area in the provision of a Fire Service to the public. The responsibility of the Chief Fire Officer is to deliver the three elements of the Service i.e. operations; prevention and public safety in a balanced way - subject to direction of the County/City Manager and within the financial limits by the Annual Budget 4- Description of Fire
Authorities There are 29 Chief Fire Officers, and 37 Fire Authorities in Ireland. Fire Authorities are an integral part of Local Authorities. Dublin Fire Brigade is the largest Fire Authority in the country. It has ten whole-time and four retained stations and a total staff of over 800 personnel. The Chief Fire Officer is responsible to County/City Manager - through the County/City Engineer in some Fire Authoritie - and the local elected Council, to deliver the Fire Service to the public in the community Staffing in the
Fire Service There are three grades of personnel involved in the Fire Service in Ireland. 1.
Fire fighters 2. Junior Officers 3. Senior Officers The number of the various grades nationally are summarised in Table 3 for 1995 1. Fire
fighters There are two grades of fire fighters employed in the country as a whole, firstly retained fire fighters in rural areas and whole-time fire fighters in the larger Urban areas. -
Retained fire
fighters Retained fire fighters are recruited locally for the area in which they are going to be employed. They have to fulfill requirements with regard to where they reside, and must be freely available at all times to turn out to incidents. People who are self-employed are favored. In recent times it has become increasingly difficult to recruit these staff as employers are more reluctant to allow fire fighters leave the work place regularly to attend fires. Retained fire-fighters are alerted by pagers from their homes or workplace and are expected to attend at their Fire Stations and mount Fire Appliances within 5 minutes of being alerted. -
Whole-time fire
fighters Whole-time fire fighters are recruited by advertisement in the daily newspapers, the process is a lengthy one which includes an aptitude test, two interviews together with the physical tests. It is a sought-after position. Full time fighters are on-Station all the time - working on shifts - and turn out within one minute of being alerted. For every five full time fire-fighters in Full Time Brigades, one would normally be on duty at any particular time. 2.
Junior Officers Junior Officers are recruited from the fire fighter grades. They undergo training in command and control and station management. Initially Junior Officers start as crew commanders and are then promoted to station commanders. In Dublin where there are many risks, the top rank of Junior officer and bottom rank of Senior Fire Officer - that is a District Officer- are also employed on a shift basis. While he/she does not turn out on a fire appliance like other Junior Officers, he turns out in a fire service car. It should be noted that District Officer is a post particular to Dublin Fire Brigade. There are no statutory national examinations for promotion. However in the Dublin Fire Brigade a new promotion system has recently been introduced which includes, amongst other factors, examinations. Discussions are ongoing with the Trade Unions, etc., with a view to facilitating Junior Officers to proceed to higher ranks, ultimately to Chief Fire Officer. However this will require a university degree in either Engineering or Architecture. Junior Fire Officers can either be retained or full time depending on their Brigade - see Table 3 for breakdown . 3. Senior
Officers For the most part in Ireland a two-tier entry system exists where the Senior Officers are predominantly university graduates in either Engineering or Architecture. Some Senior Officers who are employed on operational duties who are not graduates. However that situation is slowly changing and more and more graduates are filling these positions. There is a difficulty in providing graduates with adequate training, particularly in the operations. This is being addressed by the Fire Service Council by the provision of training for graduate officers in operational matters. These courses have taken place both in Ireland, in the Fire Service College (Moreton-in-Marsh in the UK) and the Fire Service College in Copenhagen Denmark. Part of the difficulty experienced in training senior Fire officers is that in rural areas few large incidents occur, while in the cities and urban areas such incidents occur more frequently. With such an imbalance in the number of incidents it is very difficult to give officers adequate experience in fire-fighting strategy as most of the fire authorities which are located in rural areas do not have a broad range of incidents to provide them with adequate experience. Hence, simulating such incidents is becoming a more common feature of Fire Service Officer Training. There are almost 2000 retained personnel, of which almost 400 are Officers. There were 1055 full time fire personnel of which 235 were Officers. There are in excess of 150 Senior Fire Officers including Chief Fire Officers and specialist Fire Prevention Officers who supervise the Fire Service. In summary 60%, of all fire personnel in Ireland are
retained or part-time personnel. 5- Standards of Fire Cover As previously stated there are no official standards of fire cover. In general, however the first attendance to a fire in both Urban and Rural areas is a water tender with an Officer, Driver and four firefighters. In large urban areas an aerial appliance may accompany this first attendance. A response time of ten to fifteen minutes, or less is achieved in most urban situations. A response time of up to twenty minutes might be expected in rural areas, but times in excess of twenty minutes are likely in remote rural areas. Road traffic accidents and incidents involving chemicals are attended generally by an Emergency Tender accompanied by a Water Tender. The number of crew available in most rural fire stations varies from eight to thirteen personnel which would include a Station Officer and Sub-Officer. There are 220 Fire Stations throughout the country in which there are 337 Pumping Appliances. On average the number of fire-fighters per 1000 inhabitants for all Fire Brigades is 0.9. This Figure varies from 1.2 in the Dublin area to 0.57 in some rural Fire Authorities. The average surface area per Station area is 32,000 ha. This figure varies from a small area in cities e.g. 1900 ha in Limerick to large areas in the order of 50,000 ha in coastal rural Fire Authorities e.g. Galway , Kerry Clare and Wexford. Similarly, the number of inhabitants per Station varies from 60,000 in the cities to an average of 13,000 in rural areas. The geography demography, topography, etc. of each County or City has a large bearing on the allocation of resources in terms of Fire Stations, number of fire-fighters and number of fire engines. Secondly the "wealth" of a county or city in terms of rateable valuation is also a factor in allocating resources to the Fire Service. While the average Expenditure per head of population on the Fire Service is £19 it can be as low as £7 per head in some rural counties. Similarly, while the average expenditure in the Fire Service is 5% of total Local Authority expenditure -even though the number of staff in the Fire Service as a proportion of all Local Authority staff is on average 11%, the percentage of spending on the Fire Service can be as low as 2% of total L.A. spending in some Fire Authorities. In the absence of national standards of fire cover the Fire Service is being provided on an ad hoc basis in each Fire Authority. It must compete with all other Services for funds,regardless of intrinsic needs. No performance indicators for Fire Brigade operations exist in the country. However, in recent times with the advent of information technology different aspects of the service are being examined. These include: - turn-out times - the degree of utilization of different appliances - the relative workload of fire stations It is proposed over a period of time to consolidate this information with a view to establishing operational norms against which the efficiency of the service can be measured. While there are no national standards of fire cover, the analysis of the standard of fire cover provided has been measured against the standards of fire cover in the UK and those in Denmark. Measured against either standard the service provided appears to fall outside UK standards but within Danish parameters. However there appears to be some disparity in provision of the Fire Service throughout the country. Based on Local Authority returns to the Department of Environment in 1995. The total number of Emergency calls attended by the Fire Brigade was 53,262. This figure excludes Ambulance Emergency calls attended by Dublin Fire Brigade which is of the order of 72,000 calls. The total number of fires attended was 36,000 incidents and the Fire Brigade attended on average 9,300 Chimney Fires which represented 26% of all fires attended in 1995. This high proportion of chimney fires attended appears to be unique to the Irish Fire Service in comparison with other countries. There were also 10,000 false alarm calls (which include False alarm calls with good intent and malicious false alarms) which represented 20% of total calls. The percentage of false alarm calls was, on average, higher in urban than in rural areas. Fire Brigades are attending more special service calls i.e. calls to Road Traffic accidents, Flooding and chemical incidents than heretofore. The total number of special service calls was 6,660 which represents on average 13% of all calls attended by the Fire Brigade. While there is no legal duty on a Fire Authority to attend non fire emergency calls, they are empowered to attend such calls. The number of fires attended by the Fire Brigade, per thousand inhabitants, is on average 10 for all Fire Authorities Over the period 1984 to 1995 the total number of fires attended by the Fire Brigade has increased slightly from 33,000 to 36,000 while the number of Domestic Fires has decreased from 16,000 down to 12,000. Domestic Fires now form only 35% of total fires as opposed to 50% in the mid-eighties. The number of staff in the Fire Brigade has more or less stayed constant during this period which would tally with total Local Authority Employee numbers which actually fell in this period due to Voluntary Redundancy schemes and Government embargo’s on staff recruitment. · The fatalities due to Fire have reduced slightly and are now at an average in the order of 40 to 50 per year now in the nineties as opposed to 50 to 60 per year in the eighties. It should noted that most fatalities due to fires occur in private houses which are not regulated as regards Fire Safety.
It is the duty, under the Fire Service Act, 1981, of Fire Authorities to provide training for Fire Service personnel in their employment. Training in the Fire Service is at present handled in two different ways. Firstly, recruit training and breathing apparatus training is provided in locally by the Fire Authorities. However some full time Brigades send recruits to U.K. Brigade Training Centres for basic training. Secondly the Fire Services Council which was set up by the Minister of the Environment after enactment of Fire Services Act 1981 to deal with National training, organises Fire Officer training (both Junior and Senior), both for firefighting and fire prevention purposes. It provides courses for Junior Officers in, training centres throughout the country. Courses for Senior Officers are provided in Great Britain and Denmark, together with on-going fire prevention courses held at a central locations. It should be noted that there is no National Training Centre for the Fire Service in Ireland or no accredited Graduate or Post Graduate 3rd level course in Fire Safety Engineering in the Republic of Ireland. Senior Officers are required to have a basic university degree - usually in Engineering. The Fire Services Council is currently examining the entire educational system in order to provide for the dual entry of graduate engineering personnel and full-time firemen to the Senior Officer ranks. The cost of the fire services is broken down into two headings: (i) Revenue, and (ii) Capital Revenue costs are associated with the day to day running of the fire service while capital deals with the purchase of new equipment and appliances or buildings - all funding for capital projects provided by Central Government on a grant basis to local Fire Authorities. Table4
shows total National expenditure, Capital and Current, on the Fire Service from
1984 to 1996
During this period 81 fire stations have been constructed or refurbished and 286 fire appliances have been purchased. In the past five years computer aided mobilization and geographic information systems have also been provided. The total cost nationally, of the fire service in 1996 was £76.6 million made up of £71.5 million spent by Local Authorities on revenue expenditure and £5 million spent by the Department of Environment on capital expenditure. Capital expenditure was 7% of Current Expenditure in 1996. The capital cost as a proportion of total cost -Capital plus Current- has decreased from 16% in the mid 1980’s to 6%-7% in the mid 1990’s. The total cost of the Fire Service, as a percentage of Gross National Product has decreased from 0.25% to 0.22% in the same period. It can be
seen that while the amount expended by Local Authorities has increased
since 1984, the reverse has happened with Capital Funding. While there was increased
Capital funding on the Fire Service in the immediate wake of the Stardust
Tribunal, the urgency for such funding now appears to have waned .
For example in 1995 total Capital spending in the Department of Environment was
£709 million of which only £4.5 million i.e.
0.7%
of total Capital Spending was
spent on the Fire Service. Since 1987, overall Capital Spending was severely cut by the Government as part of the overall financial correction to restore National finances. The Fire Service was one of the victims of these cuts. Capital funding for the Fire Service is not matched by co-financing from EU - either under Structural or Cohesion Funding (similar to Roads or Sanitary Services Capital Financing), hence there is no incentive for the State to increase Capital funding for the Fire Service. Finally, as the Economy recovered and grew in the 1990’s, the total funding as a percentage of our national output has decreased. For example if the level of Capital funding was held the same level as a proportion of Total Spending as in 1985, it would have been £8.5 million in 1995 - almost double the current amount being provided. FUNDING The fire service in Ireland is funded on a revenue basis (day-to-day expenses), from the Local Authority's resources. Local authority resources are made up of three separate sources. (i) State
Funding This is a fund which is paid to each local authority. The amount that is paid to the local authority is based on what was one time raised by local tax (rates). Local tax is no longer payable by members of the public either as rates on private houses (abolished in 1977) or domestic water charges (aboloshed since 1996). (ii) Rates
(Local Tax) However Rates are levied locally on commercial premises annually. This represents a large source of income for some local authorities - in particular urban authorities. (iii) Charges Some Local Authorities charge for some of the Operational services provided by the Fire Service e.g. chimney fires, special services etc. However charges levied for a particular service may not return to the Fire service and are income to general funds. In 1995 the breakdown of funding of Local Authorities was Government Grants 41%, rates on Commercial property 26%; Income from Goods And Services 33%. Thus, the Fire Service is largely funded through Central Government Taxation similar to the other local services. BUDGETING The method of preparation, time scale and format for annual budgets are stipulated in 'The Public Bodies Order 1946' which has statutory effect. It stipulates how all budgets are to be prepared and how they are to be monitored regularly throughout the financial year. It also details how local authorities must prepare their annual report, when to place it before the elected members of the Authority and when to submit it to Central Government. The percentage of the budget involved in salaries and wages is high. For example approximately 80%-85% of Dublin fire brigade's total budget is salaries and wages. The remainder of the budget is for overhead costs such as rent, heating, insurance, petrol, oil and maintenance of vehicles. The Fire Services Councils annual budget is approximately £200,000. This is largely used to fund or subvent training for Officers in the Fire Service. The Fire Services Council is funded by a grant from DoE. The fire service is financially accountable to its local authority who are accountable to elected members, and must also provide regular reports on the financial position to the Central Government. A Fire authority may provide the total fire service for all or part of a neighbouring local authority’s area or may assist at incidents outside its own functional area. Some local authorities have legal agreements in place with neighbouring local authority for payment for services provided. This is usually a cost per inciden ar a flat annuall charge . There is no statutory basis for Major Emergency Planning in Ireland and the current procedure is based on Guidance issued by the DoE in 1984 which sets out a Framework for a joint approach between the three statutory Emergency Services at a major incident i.e. the Local Authority (the Fire Service being the front-line Emergency service for the Local Authority), the Garda and the Health Board. The Fire Authority is the co-ordinator of all Local Authority services at the site of a major emergency. These services might range from water supply, housing, etc to road works. The fire service controls all the local authority functions and duties at the site of a major emergency in the immediate vicinity of the incident. The
key facts of the Fire Service in Ireland with
regard operations are:
top ·
The Local
Authority is charged with the duty of providing a Fire Service in it's
functional area. ·
The Fire
Service is an integrated part of the Local Authority system and it is delivered
as part of Program Group 5 - Environmental protection and typically absorbs 50% of the
cost of the Environmental Protection Budget in Local Authorities. ·
While the
day to day management of the Fire Service is under the direction of the Chief
Fire Officer in a Local Authority, the County Manager or his/her
delegated alternative as Chief Executive of the Local Authority is by definition ultimately
responsible for the provision of Fire Protection Services in his/her area of
jurisdiction ·
Most of
the functions in relation to the Fire Service in the Local Authority are
executive functions and are the responsibility of the Manager of the Authority
with the exception of Preparation of Fire & Operations Plan known as Section
26 Plan which is a reserved function and is a matter for the Council as a whole
i.e local elected politicians. ·
The
Department of Environment has only an advisory role only and does not have the
authority to inspect the Local Authority Fire Service or impose national
Performance Standards for the Fire Service on the Local Authority. |