A LEADING international fire fighter has warned that Ireland’s fire service is not equipped for a major disaster.
Speaking at the 54th annual Chief Fire Officers Association Conference in Co Limerick, Goran Schnell, the former chief fire officer with the Uppsala fire service in Sweden, also warned that any cuts in fire service budgets here would hamper the ability to deal with major emergencies.
In his address, the former president of the Federation of European Union Fire Officers Association spoke about the challenges facing tomorrow’s firefighters.
“If something big happens here in Ireland I don’t think they have the resources to deal with that,” Mr Schnell warned.
Mr Schnell, who also spent some of his 47-year career working in disaster management with the United Nations and Nato in Kosovo, said Ireland was comparable to Europe in terms of resources and skills but warned that climate change was creating more dangerous situations that firefighters were not prepared for.
Mr Schnell referred to last winter’s unprecedented freezing conditions in Ireland and also the recent sand storm in Germany, which was more typical “of something you’d see in the Saharan dessert”.
Mr Schnell said the Irish fire service was well-funded and well-trained by international standards.
However, he urged the Government to maintain current levels of funding.
The majority of the 37 chief fire officers from across the country are attending the conference.