Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Hickey tells how seeing his dad respond to calls when his pager went off inspired him.

FROM playing a vital role in co-ordinating the distribution of humanitarian aid following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, to responding to serious fire brigade incidents all over West Cork, it’s all in a day’s work for David Hickey.

The Skibbereen native works as Assistant Chief Fire Officer and is responsible for fire brigade operations in the Western Division of Cork which comprises stations in Bantry, Castletownbere, Schull, Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Dunmanway.

Living in Clonakilty, which boasts a new fire station, and based in Bantry, David’s love for the job is palpable.

A UCC graduate of civil engineering, he worked on construction projects for five years before joining the fire service.

‘My father John was a retained firefighter and served as driver mechanic with Skibbereen Fire Brigade until he retired in 2010 after 30 years’ service, so it’s what I grew up with. Seeing him respond to calls when the pager went off, all of that was very familiar to me and influenced me to take up a career in the fire service,’ said David.

There’s a two-tier entry point to the fire services – either as a firefighter which is the more public-facing role, but there’s also lots of vital, behind the scenes engineering roles.

‘In the same way that a building needing planning permission, new developments also require a fire safety certificate and I was involved in that element of the operations to begin with, starting out in the fire prevention section, although regardless of what you do, everyone has to go through all the training required to be fire officer,’ said David.

He took over the role in West Cork three years ago and is relishing it. His role is diverse and among other things involves the management of the operational readiness of all six stations, training of personnel, introduction of new technologies and advancements in fire service equipment, maintenance of buildings and the fleet and health and safety.

‘Each station has a crew of 12, so that’s 72 personnel in the division, with a minimum of six on call at any one time per station. Once a member of the public makes a call, the first crew aims to leave the station within four to five minutes. To make that happen all retained officers need to live and work within two miles of their station which is a big commitment to make. Your family and work must align with the role of a firefighter. Fortunately we’ve gotten much better at recruiting and retaining people thanks to improved pay and conditions and there’s just two vacancies at the moment following recent retirements.’

David personally attends significant incidents in the region, those of long duration or involving fatalities.

‘When I’m on call I also cover South Cork so I could find myself at a scene in Baltimore or Carrigaline and anywhere in between,’ he said

The advancement of technology is assisting them in their roles all the time.

‘For example we typically use hydraulically powered tools, running off a hydraulic pump for rescues at road traffic collision, but we’re currently preparing a tender to move to battery run tools that wouldn’t be so loud which will mean communications at the scene will be easier, and they’ll be less fumes near the vehicles. That’s a big investment but we’re well supported by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management in the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government who fund the Fire Service capital programme.’

David’s father John.

Another big ticket item on his desk right now is advancing the proposal for a new station for Dunmanway. The town has been approved for a new €3.2m facility as part of a major infrastructure boost. The site of the new station will be at Brookpark, Clonakilty Road, where it will replace the current facility, which has been in operation since 1948.

‘We hope to be in a position to apply for planning permission after the summer which will be very positive,’ said David. ‘That project is urgent enough as crews are working from quite poor facilities.’

Married to Verona O’Donovan, originally from Union Hall and a teacher in Gaelscoil Dr Uí Shuilleabháin in Skibbereen, they are parents of a 14-year-old boy, and 12-year-old girl.

How difficult is it to deal with tragic scenes, we ask?

‘Naturally when there’s a fatality or a serious injury or there’s children involved it can of course be very difficult or if there’s a high number of serious incidents in a short time, that can impact on a crew, but we get excellent psychological support and back up,’ said David.

Certain times of the year also present certain challenges, including gorse fires in West Cork in early spring.

‘They do take up a lot of our resources and are physically demanding. They tie up crews up in remote areas for good stretches, instead of being available to protect the public, and that can be frustrating,’ he said,

Also frustrating David says is the number of people who still drive under the influence of intoxicants – alcohol or other substances – causing injury to themselves and others.

‘We give people the best care regardless and we always show empathy and understanding but that behaviour is frustrating for us to see.’

Last year the Western Division responded to 720 calls, an increase on the previous year.

‘We’ve seen a 10% rise in calls over the last number of years. Last year we attended 220 incidents involving road traffic collisions and in general 30% of our calls would be to RTCs. We attended 25 domestic fires last year and 13 chimney fires. Just 5% of our calls in West Cork were to domestic fires last year as generally people are taking more care in their homes, ensuring open fires and stoves are guarded and flues cleaned and that homes are fitted with smoke detectors. The most important thing is to check them weekly to make sure they are working.’

Not all David’s work is Cork based however. In March 2022 he was part of an EU Civil Protection Mission to Slovakia as part of the Ukrainian crisis response.

‘The National Directorate for Fire & Emergency Management were looking for volunteers, I applied and was selected. Essentially we were there for two weeks to support Slovakia manage the influx of refugees streaming across the border from Ukraine. Over 1m people crossed the border from Ukraine into Slovakia in the first 4 weeks of the war which completely overwhelmed their civil protection capability.’

David and others were part of a crisis management team, which helped to establish a logistics centre in Košice close to the border with Ukraine to facilitate humanitarian aid from the EU to Ukraine. Over, 150,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid has been delivered to Ukraine under the European Civil Protection Mechanism via three ogistics centres in eastern Europe included Slovakia since the outbreak of the war in 2022.

‘It was very demanding but it was also very worthwhile,’ he said

What David enjoys most about his role is ‘working with people who have an amazing set of skills’

‘We’re lucky in West Cork fire services, we have people who bring an awful lot to the service. It’s these committed people who serve the public so well that make it all worthwhile.’