On a cold, dark night recently, I joined Dublin Fire Brigade crews based in in Dublin city centre and the city’s suburbs. It turned out to be an evening of mixed call-outs – some fire-related, some road traffic accidents. Directly after roll call, the crews quickly prepped each of the appliances that were in service that night. Hoses pressure-tested, masks tweaked, high-powered metal-cutting-tool batteries checked again.
Our host for the evening was station officer Trevor Hunt. A firefighter with more than 20 years of experience, he listened in to call-outs coming in to the central control room in Townsend Street. Our first incident was a multicar collision southbound on the M50.
Even with the blue lights and sirens on, you’d be surprised how many other road users don’t move out of the way.
If you’re lucky enough to have never needed the emergency services, you may not have witnessed how calm they are in the most intense of situations. We arrived on the hard shoulder of the M50, cars speeding past on the other side of the road, multiple response vehicles, crews and flatbed car-retrieval trucks surrounding the crash scene. Behind this, several thousand vehicles queued back down the motorway.
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With all the flashing lights, wind and traffic noise there was a charged energy in the air. But what stood out most was the quiet control and confidence of the crews.
Ordinary people coming to the aid of others and quietly putting things right.
