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2005

SIPTU Fire Fighters concerned that new mobilisation system puts lives at risk

Date Released: 14 Nov 2005

SIPTU fire fighters in Cork City are concerned that lives may be at risk because of problems with the new mobilisation system which reroutes calls from the public for fire service in Cork City, from a mobilisation centre in Limerick.

"During the initial introductory trial period of operation, serious incidences of delay or inappropriate mobilisation to emergency calls happened because of the limited local geographical knowledge of operators," said SIPTU Cork No. 7 Branch Secretary, Tom O'Driscoll.

"This is not the fault of the operators but as a direct result of having to deal with information received from an unfamiliar city. Incorrect original data input of addresses and insufficient mobilisation procedures compounds the problem greatly," he said.

"The most notable of these incidences saw appliances mobilised in Cork when the fire was in Clonmel, the mobilisation of an appliance to Carrolls Quay instead of Kyrls Quay, the non-mobilisation of Ballyvolane sub-station to a serious road traffic accident in Glanmire and the despatch of appliances to two different locations for a traffic accident on the Cork/Bandon road. Numerous other incidences occurred where incorrect directions or addresses were printed out to fire fighters in Cork. It is only a matter of time before lives are lost because of the resultant turn-out delay.

"The old system whereby local brigade personnel received calls worked very well. Local operators had local geographical knowledge and could coach callers on the phone for more information, as well as advise callers on appropriate action at a fire scene.

"The transition to the new Regional Mobilisation Center has in effect been a botched attempt to fix something that was broken and City Council management are literally now playing with fire because of it. The Council are running both old and new systems parallel but management has admitted that this too was causing confusion. Extra stress also arises for the fire fighters who now find themselves 'babysitting' a flawed system and the constant re-checking of directions and addresses is sapping morale and confidence.

"SIPTU fire fighters in Cork are calling for an immediate independent audit of the trial period, a risk assessment by the Health and Safety Authority as well as the reversion of mobilisation to Cork fire brigade control. The Union is not opposed to computer mobilisation as long as it can be relied on to be more efficient than the system it replaces. This is certainly not the case at the moment" concluded Mr. O'Driscoll.





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