The NI Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) recently met with a delegation of local councillors, who were concerned about the reduction of full time staff at Enniskillen station from five to three, supported by a part time service. 

It has been confirmed the cuts, which took place last August and will continue indefinitely, have seen an increase in local response times. 

Cllr Adam Gannon was among the councillors who met with the NIFRS representatives. While he said there were some positives from the meeting, he left with grave concerns. He said he felt cutting the service’s £3.2 million budget deficit was being given priority over safety concerns. 

“They are putting money before safety,” he said. “If the changes they are making were not coming at the expense of response times, it would be brilliant. What they are doing is moving to a more prevention focus.  

“They are moving from a permanent five man, full time crew in Enniskillen to what they call the nucleus crew, which will be three full timers essentially. What they’ve going to get that three full timers to do is to go out and focus on prevention activities. Rather than staying in the Enniskillen area they will be out and about, whether it be Garrison, Belleek, Irvinestown, Lisnaskea. 

“What that means is if they are more than five minutes away from Enniskillen station, it means Enniskillen during day time hours becomes a part time service.” 

Cllr Gannon also claimed the increasing fire service response times may even be worse than originally feared. 

The NIFRS told councillors response times had fallen from one minute to four minute, 36 seconds for the full time service, and was now six minutes, 50 seconds for the ‘on-call’ part time service. 

However, Cllr Gannon said these figures were “selective.” 

“I had a fire-fighter contact me afterwards. He said the response times were in the range of 10 minutes, not six minutes 50 seconds,” he said.