'100% needed': Proposals to enhance Cork city’s fire service ‘welcome and long overdue’

The Cork City Fire Cover Review is “long overdue” but will transform the city for the better, the fire service, and public representatives have agreed.

The review, published this week, recommends a new full-time fire station in the south-west of the city in the next three years, as well as another station in the north-west and a redevelopment of the Anglesea St station within 10 years, including moving some facilities elsewhere.

Cork City Fire Brigade second officer Victor Shine told The Echo that changes are “100% needed”.

“The city has expanded, so developing and enhancing the operational capacity of the fire service is more than welcome and long overdue,” he said.

“We’re hoping in one to two years there will be significant advances. Everything suggested is welcome, we’re a bit landlocked now in Anglesea St from a traffic perspective. We need to be able to have a more satellite approach on the outskirts of the city rather than trying to get out of it.”

The proposal to repurpose the Ballincollig station into a training, operational , and logistics facility, he said, “would be great, because we are badly caught at the moment not only for the operational side of the house but in of engineering departments, fire inspections, and building control”.

Ballincollig representatives have also welcomed the review, including Sinn Féin councillor Joe Lynch, who had looked for updates on the report from the council multiple times.

“It has taken far too long for this report to make its way into the public domain, but I’m glad it has now been published,” he said.

“With a city with changing needs, and with more residential development happening in the south-west than any other part, the review makes the case for better fire cover for the area.

“From a Ballincollig perspective, we will have a better service than we’ve ever had before by way of location of a full-time station serving the area.

“While I would love to see the current fire station in Ballincollig converted to full-time use, the report’s findings must be acknowledged. It states that the station’s location isn’t optimal, and its footprint isn’t large enough to meet the standards required of a modern station. Its retention for use as a local and regional training centre means the fire service will retain a permanent presence in Ballincollig, with a new full-time station only a matter of minutes away.

“The review’s findings are positive, but they must be acted on urgently and without delay.”

Fine Gael senator Garret Kelleher, who is also from Ballincollig, said: “The review makes very practical, common-sense proposals about modernising the fire service in the city.

“The existing situation in relation to the fire service post-2019 boundary extension has been an ongoing concern for a number of communities, and the recommendations of this report, if they are delivered, will ensure optimal response times.”