Arranmore Island: Campaigners raise concern over future of fire service

Siobhan Cox belongs to a committee that started a petition to have six paid firefighters on the island.

She said residents are “very concerned” about the council’s plans.

“There might not be enough volunteers on the island to actually run that service and they might be relying on the service from the mainland to come in,” she told BBC News NI.

“And that might not be possible sometimes if the sea is too rough, and there’s no ferries running, and it’ll also take maybe up to an hour for the fire brigade from the mainland to come in on a ferry,” she added.

She feels it will make “a massive difference” if a house is on fire having a fully paid team.

Cox said there was a gorse fire the day the islanders set up the committee.

“The fire brigade was able to make it to that field and put out that fire in 10 minutes. Whereas if they’re relying on services coming in from the mainland, that could have gone out of control or even reached houses at that stage.”