STATION PROFILE

D WATCH KILBARRACK

D Watch Kilbarrack Station Officer Dave Connolly.

S/O DAVE CONNOLLY TALKS ABOUT LIFE ON D WATCH AS HE SHOWS ADAM HYLAND AROUND KILBARRACK’S REFURBISHED FIRE STATION.

“I f you’re looking for unique aspects to this station, we have those in spades,” S/O Dave Connolly of D Watch Kilbarrack tells me as he shows me around the grounds of the station, starting off at the imposing games court and the herb garden.

As we walk to the recently refurbished buildings, he tells me that “everything is part of the pilot Green Plan project undertaken a few years ago here that emphasises being carbon neutral and having biodiversity”.

“We are in a transition period as the station undergoes refurbishment,” he says, “with phases 1 and 2 taking care

L-R Mark Shaw, Glen Ellis, Darren Burns, Chris Parkes and Ashleigh Dillon in the muster area.

of the operational areas, and phase 3 starting soon upstairs, where we have the old offices and rec room.

“Next year we celebrate the station’s 50th anniversary, so we needed new facilities, and it’s all about having a clean site and a dirty site, which I think is a very good model that will probably be rolled out across DFB. The whole idea is that beyond the double doors, everything is clean, and there is no contamination going into the station,” he tells me.

As we walk through those double doors, he points to the eye-catching DFB logo on the floor. “It’s all about branding these days,” he smiles, “but this is a well-thought-out model, and a

A happy bunch after the post-Christmas night sea swim, with some Finglas FF/Ps roped into.

A bat habitat above the water pumping unit.

lot of it has come out of the pandemic where everything is about infection control.”

It’s beyond these doors that the unique nature of Kilbarrack station is most evident. Instead of dorms, there are individual pods or rooms for crew members, with five for those on the station’s one water tender and two for ambulance crews. “This is the only station that has this,” he tells me. “The rooms are done to a very high standard and it is a great model to aspire to for other stations.”

“These are meeting a huge amount of needs,” S/O Connolly says. “Firstly, they eliminate the risk of crosscontamination, and they are also very comfortable as individual bedrooms if crew members are able to catch a couple of hours of sleep on night shifts, but they are also excellent study pods. It’s a very nice way to allow us to meet our training needs, while also providing the opportunity to not have to be together in one room all the time. There is a room available for every member of the Watch. One for everybody in the audience.”

The chance to pursue learning on-site is a fantastic feature, and one which S/O Connolly says is perfectly suited to D Watch, which has many FF/Ps currently studying for qualifications.

“DFB is very progressive in personal development,” S/O Connolly says, “and in my Watch alone we have people studying for a Masters in Major Emergency Management, the Advanced Paramedic course, a case study for the Paramedic course, and a Fire Safety Science Masters, so it allows people to come and develop themselves here with a bit of peace and quiet, in between turnouts.

“We have a lot to bring to the table in terms of our operational experience, but also through academic achievement, and this place is riddled with good people seeking to better themselves.”

S/O Connolly has been with D Watch at the station “for five or six years – long enough not to remember when I started” he tells me, following ten years in Finglas as a FF/P, then S/O roles in North Strand, Finglas and Tara Street. He now works “four minutes away in rush hour traffic” from his house, which is 300 metres from where he grew up, so he feels at home here and was kind enough to come and meet me hours before his shift started.

He is full of praise for the crew he now works with. “The atmosphere is great,” he says. “We have a very young crew and this is a very busy station, so the energy levels are high. It’s a young person’s station, and I almost skip into work every day. And I know my colleagues feel the same.

“Actually, we are way beyond being colleagues, by the sheer amount of time we spend together. You inherently become a family, and it might sound like a cliché but I spend as much time among this Watch as I do with my own family, and you generate bonds. It has been a challenge with COVID-19 because it affects our normal way of going about things, sitting around the breakfast table, for example, which is a really good way of passing on knowledge to the younger members. But when we are in the fire truck, it’s masks on and windows open, so, we are still getting the opportunity to talk and bond.”

I ask how this togetherness is impacted by having individual sleep and study pods for crew members, and the risk that somebody might retreat into their room too often, but S/O Connolly says this hasn’t been a problem.

“I’d be keeping an eye on this crew because good things happen when they are around”

“That is something the officers have to look out for,” he says, “but it’s no different from looking out for the crew and noticing that somebody’s head is down after a challenging incident. The same thing applies if somebody is starting to retreat into their pod. It’s part of managing the crew as an officer.”

When it comes to the skillsets of the crew, S/O Connolly outlines how much of a good mix is present in D Watch.

“I have three Advanced Paramedics on the Watch with another one in training, three Swift Water Rescue technicians – although we aren’t a designated SRT station, with Howth there, having those skills is important – we have me on high line and Marine Emergency Response, and then we have a couple of tunnel firefighter specialists as well. It meets the risks we have at this station.

“I’m the senior man with 24 years of experience, and the crew ranges from the mid-20s up to the 40s – just on the right side of their mid-40s!”

S/O Connolly details the members of the crew.

Glen Ellis, he tells me, is the other senior man and “a great mentor to the younger firefighters”. He is an Advanced Paramedic, trained in SRT and is a coxswain, and reportedly also cooks up a mean fry.

Colin McGovern, the Lead Worker representative and tunnel-trained firefighter “sees the gaps and fills them, taking on the jobs others might shy away from”, and is front and centre in helping fight COVID-19 and getting involved n the Equality and Diversity Committee.

Darren Burns is An Advanced Paramedic and tunnel-trained firefighter, and S/O Connolly says his experience working on fishing vessels is well placed with Howth in the area covered, describing him as “a safe harbour in a storm”.

David Smeaton is an Advanced Paramedic in training and SRT-trained firefighter, chief social night organiser and mess man, while Mark Shaw is also an Advanced Paramedic and SRTtrained firefighter. “If I could bottle Mark’s enthusiasm and replicate it, I’d be a millionaire,” S/O Connolly says.

Karl Stewart, an SRT specialist is from the Stewart DFB dynasty, with his father a retired D/O and his brother in the ERCC, while Dave O’Brien keeps the crew supplied with home bakes made by his partner. “It’s the only reason we keep him around,” S/O Connolly jokes.

Chris Parkes is the heavy driver, another DFB dynasty member who “shoulders his fair share, having passed his driving courses”, while Ashleigh Dillon is the latest member of the crew, having gone through recruit training following a few years in the ERCC, and is invaluable at sensitive cases where female-to-female treatment is required.

“I know everyone is biased, but I do think this is one of the best crews in the job,” S/O Connolly says. “Their enthusiasm is incredible and there is a lovely spread of personalities, who all contribute to the group and gel well together.

“I will be moving on sooner rather than later as I take up a senior S/O role at another station, and while I am looking forward to that, I’m not looking forward to leaving this crew because there is such a good atmosphere here. I’ll be sad leaving them.

“It’s a paradox, but we have this fantastic group of very enthusiastic people who make my life and my job easy, but I also recognise the potential in all of them. I’m caught between wanting to keep this crew exactly as it is because they work so well, but also wanting them to develop.”

Portable pump drill in Howth Harbour.

Chris Parkes and Ashleigh Dillon (at the smoke curtain), doing some on station practice in tactics used at tall and complex buildings.

AREA

This combination of skillsets is needed to cover the area within Kilbarrack fire station’s district, which stretches from Donnycarney to the Howth peninsula, from Swords Road to Dublin Airport and on to Rush and Lusk.

When I ask what the best part of working in Kilbarrack is, S/O Connolly jokes that its’ “going to Howth to get ice creams”, but the reality is that D Watch cover a huge geographical area with lots of unique risks and challenges.

“All stations have their own unique hazards, and for us, we have a very coastal area,” S/O Connolly tells me. “We have Howth peninsula and lots of beaches. Some people may not realise that our area extends out to the low water mark. Anything within that is the responsibility of our fire and EMS service.”

As the nearest fire station and clinical practitioners to Howth, D Watch work closely with the Coast Guard on cliff rescues and treatment, and with the Phibsboro high line team, helped by the fact S/O Connolly is a rope rescue instructor, which he says “lends itself to dealing with cliff incidences” but they also hold responsibility for the Coolock end of the Port Tunnel, hence the tunnel response specialists.

The proximity to Howth also means that wildfires take up a lot of time in the hotter months, with this year a particularly resource-consuming season. On top of that, Howth’s working harbour necessitates a lot of pre-fire visits and specialist training to deal with the hazardous challenge of ship firefighting.

“The stats show we are the busiest station in the job, turnout-wise for fire engines,” he adds, “and certainly that’s what it feels like. Also, there used to be a lot of green areas around Kilbarrack, but there is now a huge amount of development going on, particularly towards Baldoyle, Clongriffin, etc, with thousands of domestic units going in. These are tall and complex buildings, which is another hazard That presents a new challenge to all DFB members, but the training and protocols for that are underway, with new equipment we have to familiarise ourselves with, and I do regular BA training exercises at the station to keep my crew up to speed and importantly, safe.”

The regular drills and exercises S/O Connolly puts on for his crew are sometimes, in his own words, creative, but welcomed by all personnel on D Watch. As a gym instructor, he puts on exercises to maintain functional fitness, and also puts the crew through their paces with smoke-filled garage rescues, climbing the games court, high line, harbour rescues and sea swims.

“It breaks the monotony and is something they are all more than happy to do,” he says, adding that the sea swim element is something taken up with a lot of enthusiasm.

This enthusiasm is what S/O Connolly sees as the best part of working with D Watch here.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a tight knit group of highly motivated, enthusiastic and determined firefighters who want to look out for each other as much as they do,” he tells me. “They espouse everything good DFB stands for. During my time in No.6, we’ve been to a lot of serious, traumatic and dangerous incidents and at one stage or another, I’ve asked them all to do things that go beyond the call of duty, and the answer is always ‘sure, no problem’. I couldn’t ask for a better bunch.

“They don’t sit back and wait to be led, they bring fresh ideas and improvements to the table. For example, during COVID-19, they embraced the changes, coming up with novel ways of communicating with patients under the PPE, such as using smart phone speech to text. They are natural leaders, which is great for DFB and the public. I’d be keeping an eye on this crew because good things happen when they are around.

“I’m immensely proud of everything they do. They are consummate professionals and I’m humbled to work with them. It’s a good crew, the type of people you want to hang around with.”

A rare occasion when both tender and ambulance are parked at the station.