Fire crews told not to deal with bird flu outbreaks Committee voices safety concerns

Fire service crews throughout the State will be instructed not to co-operate with plans to deal with an outbreak of bird flu, it has emerged.

Brian Murray, chairman of the National Firefighters Committee, told The Irish Times yesterday that the strategy to deal with an outbreak drawn up be the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Environment would put firefighters' lives at risk.

Under plans drawn up by the departments, in the event of an outbreak of the H5N1 avian bird-flu virus, affected poultry flocks would be slaughtered using lethal CO2 gas.

Though firefighters would not be involved in administering the CO2, they would enter the poultry house after the slaughter wearing chemical-proof suits and breathing apparatus, to measure remaining levels of the gas and check that all poultry were dead.

The committee is concerned about exposure to both CO2 and to avian flu, given one of the methods of transmission of the virus is through contact with excrement from sick birds.

Mr Murray said the draft plans did not comply with the Standing Operation Procedure (SOP) employed by the Fire Service when dealing with a HazMat (Hazardous Materials) incident.

According to this procedure an emergency crew of two to three members must be on standby with an equipped engine outside or adjacent to the poultry house to rescue their colleagues should they get into difficulty and issue an audible distress signal.

"We got copies of the draft procedures drawn up between the departments and they do not seem to provide sufficient numbers or fire units to comply with the SOP for dealing with a HazMat incident.

"The council will be meeting on May 10th and we will be issuing an instruction to fire-fighters not to vary from the SOP for a HazMat incident, not to co-operate with these plans from the departments."

He said to do otherwise would put firefighters' lives at risk.

"The problem is these poultry farms are generally in rural areas, so if a full unit goes to one of these who is going to be providing fire cover? They want the minimum numbers of firefighters and minimum number of fire engines to go to the farms."

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said the protocol was in draft form but it was being drawn up in conjunction with the fire service.

"There would be five members of the fire service involved at any slaughter - two going into the poultry house, two outside and one supervisor."