Republic of Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, fire services are provided on a county-by-county, local authority basis. Apart from a small number of full-time brigades, most fire services operate a retained duty system, where firefighters are alerted to the fire station by a pager/alerter system. Retained firefighters are typically on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week apart from pre-arranged leave. Management and fire prevention duties (inspections, building assessment etc.) are carried out by a small number of senior officers in each county, usually between 4 and 10 depending on size and population.
An Irish fire brigade attends a wide variety of incidents, spanning from fire calls to flooding incidents to extrication of trapped victims at road incidents. This means that a wide variety of equipment is carried on the first-turnout appliance (ladders, hose, breathing apparatus and extrication equipment as well as a vehicle mounted pump and a 1800 litre water tank), whilst more specialised vehicles - water tankers, rescue tenders, high reach appliances etc. - are stationed at strategic locations.
At border areas, such as Donegal, Louth and so on, local agreements are in place with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service in relation to attending incidents.
Read more about this topic: Firefighting Worldwide
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