This article is from page 4 of the 2013-11-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
FIRE personnel from Kilrush came under attack from youths throwing stones while carrying out their duty on Halloween night.
The fire unit was called to an illegal bonfire in the town by concerned residents who feared it would get out of control.
While the reserve members of the fire service were dealing with the flames, four to five youths threw stones in their direction, hitting the fire engine.
No firefighters were injured in the incident.
Denis O’Connell, Senior Assistant Fire Officer with the Clare Fire Service, said that almost every year the members of the fire service face some aggravation when they are called to control bonfires.
“This was not very serious as no one got hit, but no one should have to put up with that when they go to do their day’s work,” he said.
The assistant fire chief explained that bogus calls were as frustrating to the fire service as these senseless attacks.
“If we get a call we have to take it serious. If there is a unit in an area on a call, we then have to take a unit from another area if there is a second call in that area. This affects the call out time to an incident,” he said.
“It is very serious on a busy night to get a bogus call,” added Mr O’Connell referring to a bogus call out in Shannon on Thursday night last – Halloween night.
Thursday proved particularly busy for the Clare Fire Service with 10 call outs in total.
Four of the call outs were to bonfires, in Kilrush, Kilkee, Shannon and Ennis, and one was the bogus call out.
“Ten calls is a lot in one day for seven brigades,” explained Mr O’Connell.
Last year there were 10 bonfire call outs in the county.
Mr O’Connell attributes the drop in bonfire call outs to just four this year to the strong public campaign by Clare County Council last week. Members of the public reporting any waste being gathered for potential bonfires and the weather. He said the rain quite literally dampened plans for the Halloween tradition this year.