A Town Without A Fire Station

We all stand together…?

he hope was that some kind of reconciliation would have been reached over the weekend, but it’s now Tuesday, and still no change.

No change from Friday, when all of Greystones’ firemen called in sick, allegedly over an escalating fallout with their chief, Ciaran Hayden.

The latter has been noticeably absent from any of the protests in recent weeks over pay and recruitment, having, we’re told, taken sides with management.

And now, it seems that his crew have had enough, and have effectively downed tools, leaving the Greystones fire station unmanned.

We’re hoping to get word from Greystones fire chief Ciaran – and Wicklow’s chief fire officer Aidan Dempsey – to see when and how this situation can be resolved. A town this size without a fire crew is a dangerous state of affair.

Wicklow County Council provided us with the following statement: “Due to a number of firefighters being unavailable for work the number of available firefighters in Greystones has fallen below the minimum safe number for an operational fire crew. Greystones fire station is still being alerted to incidents but in all cases an additional fire station is being alerted in line with health and safety procedures.”

Here’s hoping those in power can come to their senses, and soon…