Fire Engines Photos

This would have to be the quietest fire station in the world. I visited the station two days after this picture and none of the appliances had been moved or gone on call. :(

Added by Philip Leahy on 26 October 2008.

The Spanish province of Catalonia passed a law some years ago, requiring that every community had to have a fire station if its population exceeded 5, 000 citizens.

This has resulted in a very large number of stations - almost all of which are entirely staffed by unpaid on-call volunteers.

But it has also created a situation where some are not very busy at all, and one has to wonder why many of these are there at all. Perusal of their recent annual report indicates that the least busy one responded to only six calls in an entire year.

This may be the leading candidate for the quietest one any where!

Added by Rob Johnson on 28 May 2018.

Not sure why anyone thinks Cork City Fire Brigade are quiet, the year of Philips visit they responded to almost 3, 500 incidents and probably attending as many this year.....

Added by Gearóid Blake on 31 May 2018.

By international standards ten calls a day is really not very high for a city of 550, 000 inhabitants.

The average in the UK would be around twenty five for a similar size city, and in the US nearer forty.

I wonder if the difference may be partly because Ireland has fewer buildings with automatic fire alarms. These account for the huge numbers of calls in many American cities, not to mention some in Britain and Northern Europe.

In countries such as Spain, Italy and Portugal they are few and far between, so the call out rates are much lower, and are in fact very similar to Cork city.

Added by Rob Johnson on 01 June 2018.

Rob, I don't think theres any fewer buildings with AFAs compared to any other country, in fact I'd say we require more buildings to have them fitted when compared to the UK.
Certainly the fire brigade here may respond to less AFAs as generally fire brigades here are not automatically dispatched to an AFA.
Cork City is substantially smaller than you mentioned, it is about 130, 000 people. The figure of 525, 000 refers to the administrative area of Cork County which is different to the City response area.

Added by Gearóid Blake on 05 June 2018.

Thanks.

The website would seem to indicate the response area is much larger, but if it serves only 130, 000 people the call ratio is not low, but actually about 50% higher than the UK average of around five runs a day!

Averages are of course just that. How fire stations are equipped and crewed are also a function of the kind of emergencies they respond to as well as how many. (Think about airport fire services as an extreme example).

In addition, there is the question of mutual aid from surrounding communities. If this is distant, then local resources need to be beefed up somewhat, added to which is the issue of special purpose units as well as just the numbers of pumps.

Added by Rob Johnson on 05 June 2018.

There are two separate and distinct fire authorities serving Cork - Cork City fire brigade serving the City area and Cork County fire Brigade serving the rest of the county.
There are four watches in the Brigade
Each watch has 1 third officer, 2 station officers, 2 sub officers, 3 leading fighters and 27 fire fighters.

There is a minimum of 19 Firefighters on duty at any time.




Added by Gearóid Blake on 06 June 2018.

What are the other sixteen members of the duty watch doing if only nineteen are actually on duty?

Added by Rob Johnson on 07 June 2018.

Its a minimum of 19 that have to be on watch. I would imagine this figure is to allow for annual leave, sick leave and training etc.....

Added by Gearóid Blake on 25 June 2018.

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