It’s been claimed that it took the fire service over three times longer to attend a serious house fire in Sligo this week due to station closures.
Retained firefighters are over a week on the picket line and today, have called on the Chief Executive of Sligo County Council to change his position on a proposal for industrial action put forward by SIPTU.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Sligo’s Retained Firefighters say that the current level of industrial action which sees 50% of Sligo Fire Stations closed on any given day, is as a result of County Council Chief Executives choosing not to implement a proposal for industrial action put forward by SIPTU.
The proposal for industrial action was to deploy three pumping appliances to all incidents, however this wasn’t accepted by Chief Executives who in turn have opted for station closures.
This, they say, has already had an impact on the people of Sligo whereby a very serious house fire that occurred earlier this week was attended by Ballymote & Manorhamilton Fire Appliances with an arrival time of 20-25 minutes following the 999 call.
Had Sligo Town station been available, their attendance time would have been in the region of 7 minutes.
As a result of this, Sligo’s Retained Firefighters are lobbying the chief executive to change his position and become wholly accepting of SIPTU’s proposal.
They are warning that the current system in place is potentially endangering the lives of the general public and property not to mention the immediate response necessary should incidents occur at large industrial/manufacturing facilities or indeed Sligo University Hospital.
