This article is from page 12 of the 2013-11-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A HOAX emergency call that sparked a major search operation around Ennis last week is now the subject of a criminal investigation.
The River Fergus was the focus of the two-hour search after a call was received of a person entering the water in the Woodquay area of the town.
A number of services including the Gardaí, Kilkee Coast Guard, Doolin Coast Guard, Clare Fire Services and the Health Services Executive (HSE) attended the search while Clare Civil Defence were on standby.
No one was recovered from the water and there were no definite sightings of a person in the river. Gardaí had not received any report of a missing person.
Emergency services were already stretched having earlier attended the scene of an accident in Ennis where a van crashed through the front entrance of a shop.
Gardaí are now investigating the call after receiving a complaint from the Clare Fire Services.
Inspector Tom Kennedy confirmed Gardaí are looking into the matter. “Hoax calls can sometimes be about chimney fires or things like that but it is very unusual to get one to say that a person has jumped into the river. This involved all the emergency services. The Civil Defence were on standby. It was very dangerous.”
A coast guard helicopter was on the scene within 20 minutes. The search was coordinated by gardaí and involved up to 30 coast guard officers, 14 fire services personnel, paramedics and advanced paramedics.
Coast guard helicopter call outs cost an estimated € 5,000 an hour while the estimated cost of fire services involvement on the night runs to almost € 2,000.
The coast guard were tasked with the call at 9.10pm and the search was stood down following extensive consultation at 11pm.
Chief fire officer for Clare, Adrian Kelly described the hoax call as “madness”.
“The cost is one thing but the more important thing is safety,” he added.
Head of Clare Civil Defence Liam Griffin said the presence of so many people around the river on a night when weather conditions were poor made the situation more dangerous.
“It’s unheard of that you’d have that many people in the town on a Wednesday night. There is an inherent danger in having that many people around water.
“We have no issue responding to any emergency call but situations like this put severe strain on the emergency services,” explained Martony Vaughan, Officer in Charge of Kilkee Coast Guard.