“A huge drain on resources, a huge waste of money”.
That’s how Carlow’s Acting Fire Chief has summed up a spate of blazes in Tullow town that appear to have been deliberately started.
Liam Carroll told last evening’s municipal district meeting that between 26th March and 3rd May alone there were 19 such fires, between them costing €14,500.
Almost half were in broad daylight and on two occasions bins were taken from outside the fire station itself and set alight. While one incident almost led to the evacuation of the HSE community health centre.
Councillors were appalled, among them Will Paton who was stunned and shocked; “I hardly know what to say about it I’m actually that taken aback, when people say to me ‘What do we get for our local property tax?’, this is what’s happening, your local property tax, €14,500 worth of it, is just being wasted this way, it’s an absolute massive drain on council resources, it’s unbelievable that eight to nine of these cases happen during broad daylight hours, this is the type of behaviour that has absolutely got to stop”.
It’s though a number of people are responsible; “It’s not just one gang, there’s more than one group perpetrating these fires, they’ve got to be brought before the courts as soon as possible and I’m actually surprised that there hasn’t been serious damage to property given the number of fires and I’d like to say a sincere thanks to Tullow Fire and Rescue Services there for the marvellous job that they are doing but lads we have to get the message out, that type of activity is completely and utterly unacceptable”.
Cllr Paton adds “It’s very easy to bandy names about, another thing bringing proof that stands up before a court that a judge can convict, it’s slightly two different things but like there’s certainly names circulating in social circles in Tullow, people do know what’s happening, even the guards know what’s happening, I’m hoping that there will be some action shortly and that some of these will be brought before the local district court but again isn’t it unbelievable in this day and age, 19 separate fires in Tullow Town in a six week period costing €14,500 – unbelievable”.
Meanwhile, hear Cllr Paton and Cllr John Pender who joined our Eimear Ní Bhraonáin on KCLR Live to further discuss this topic here:
