It's all of our responsibility to ensure that local fire crews are not under pressure this Halloween. That's according to Siobhán McKenna who is the Senior Assistant Chief Fire Officer for Monaghan County Council.
As "spook-tacular" events continue across the region today and tonight, Siobhán is encouraging locals to "be safe" to reduce the risk of putting lifesaving resources under pressure. Speaking to Northern Sound, Siobhan said that responding to calls over bonfires or the misuse of illegal fireworks can jeopardise the response time of local fire crews when attending serious emergencies such as house fires or road traffic collisions. As a result, she is calling on people from across the region to be "mindful" of their actions in order to alleviate any additional pressures facing local fire crews this Halloween.
"Each year in the run-up to Halloween and on Halloween night itself we receive multiple call-outs relating to bonfires and when we're out dealing this with, we may not be able to get to the more important calls such as house fires and road traffic collisions," she explained. "In this instance, local fire engines may have to drive from a station further away and it would take longer to get to an emergency call-out and that's an important thing for people to note. In general, I would also ask people to respect all emergency services and council crews. We all have a job to do and we all have families to go home to so it's important that people are conscious of that during this time of year."
