Killarney

My husband David and I went to Ireland for vacation in May 2007. From Cork to Killarney to Adare and everything in between, we put well over 1500 miles on the rental car in a week! While in Killarney, I couldn't resist a chance to stop by the fire station. Like many of the county stations, this was a "retained" station, staffed by part-time firefighters who respond from their homes or jobs when the pagers go off. So we were lucky to catch one of them, Firefighter Kelly, who had just stopped by the station for an errand, and he gave us a quick tour of the house.

This station is located in the midst of a marvelously scenic area, with the rugged mountains, rolling countryside, and wild coastline all within driving distance. Being a tourist attraction, and having many tourists who (like us) are not accustomed to driving on the left side of the road, one can only imagine the kind of wrecks they must respond to, heh! According to Firefighter Kelly, vehicle crashes make up a large percentage of their incidents as do - believe it or not - grass fires! I would not have guessed that, with as much precipitation as they get! Firefighters are also trained in medical response.

The Killarney station is staffed by 11 personnel, and is home to two fire apparatus - a pumper ("water tender" in their terms) which also carries a complement of extrication equipment; and an aerial equipped with a Bronto Skylift. There is also a third passenger-type vehicle that looked like it could serve as a command vehicle. The district covered by this station is relatively large, with response distances as long as 20+ miles (I THINK he said "miles", and not "kilometres"...) - regardless, a challenge considering that some of the roads are barely wide enough to get a passenger car through, never mind a fire truck!