Kilkenny’s fire services are planning for the next five years and they’d love to get your views.
The ambitious vision for 2022 to 2026 is out for public consultation with submissions welcome before it goes before next month’s county council meeting for adoption. (See the plan in full here).
The last programme of works yielded a new station in Graignamanagh (more on that here) and the replacement of up to 13 appliances.
This time around up to 17 vehicles are to be replaced and there are upgrades due for the Urlingford base with a move on the cards for the Kilkenny City headquarters.
While staffing wise, the services are at full capacity hiring 75 locally, 68 of whom are frontline firefighters.
Recruitment is expected however as retirements come up and hopes are high that some of those will be female, the force not having women battling blazes for about the last twenty years.
And, though the number of calls the local crew took last year was down on previous years, the range of the work they do has hugely expanded.
KCLR News’ Edwina Grace has been catching up with the Fire Chief John Collins for THe Way It Is with Sue Nunn – listen back here:
