There are growing concerns about staff shortages at Dublin Fire Brigade in the run up to Halloween.
They urgently need around 60 more fire fighters to protect the people of Dublin.
There are now calls for an immediate recruitment drive.
Summertime Was "Particularly Bad"
Dublin Firefighter Shane McGill says the lack of staff is very dangerous.
"The service on the ground in the summer time does be particularly bad."
"As you know, people have to get their annual leave and their time off."
"It's affected, big time, the number of services."
"I have received text messages from members in every station, saying they're understaffed, undermanned."
"I could show you text messages from particular days where we've had three or four fire trucks taken off the road."
"Now that has serious consequences for the people of Dublin."
Last night, Firefighters prevented a building fire extinguishing bins and rubbish alight before it could spread.
On inspection of the inside of the property it was heavily smoke logged, but not fire damaged.
Ideally, bins and waste should be securely stored away from buildings pic.twitter.com/9wScgzDd7o— Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) September 16, 2021
Overtime Is Risking Burnout
Those concerns have also entered political discussions too, with the Lord Mayor to table a motion next week.
Alison Gililand wants new training classes to commence.
She says the members there at the moment will do "everything in their power" to make sure trucks go out with enough crew.
"There's firefighters coming in off annual leave, coming in to do extra hours to make sure the tenders are fully crewed."
"But unfortunately, they're not always available."
However the Lord Mayor admits that brings another risk of it's own.
"One of the concerns I'd have is that, if the service is running on a lot of overtime, then you'll have firefighters actually risking burnout."
"If they don't have the proper down time to recover both emotionally or physically from it."
