BLAZING ROW; Fire union chief warns of deaths because of cuts.Byline: SARAH Sarah or Sarai: see Sara. Sarah (flourished early 2nd millennium BC) In the Hebrew scriptures, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. She was childless until age 90. BARDON DUBLIN Fire Brigade is "on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of collapse" as the Government tries to impose EUR EUR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Euro. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 4million cuts - just months after slashing the budget by EUR18million. Siptu's fire brigade convenor John Kidd said the service is the worst in Europe and warned it is going to get worse. He added: "We were told that we had to make savings of EUR4million last week which means we will have to lose an ambulance in Dublin and may mean we have to re-deploy staff. "Our staff won't go [off] sick because they are terrified ter·ri·fy tr.v. ter·ri·fied, ter·ri·fy·ing, ter·ri·fies 1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten. 2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. that they will lose their job. The stress levels are off the chart. "Some staff who are there to answer the calls are now having to cover appliances and are getting no breaks. It is ridiculous. We are at our wits' end." Mr Kidd said Swords Fire Station will lose its only ambulance in two months unless the HSE HSE House HSE Health and Safety Executive HSE Helsinki School of Economics HSE Hamilton Southeastern (High School) HSE Health, Safety & Environment HSE Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia) foots the bill. He added: "The HSE, who normally pay Dublin Fire Brigade for the ambulance service, have refused to pay. "The City Manager has stated he will not provide an ambulance without being paid. He has alluded to withdrawing this vital life-saving service from July or August - depriving the citizens of Swords and its environs, through no fault of his own, of this vital ambulance. "People are asking us, 'Why are we dying?' and we don't have an answer. People are dying because we can't reach them in time. "In 1990, the waiting time was 15 minutes and the latest report showed it is 36 minutes. "We know that it is too long and we must ask what price is put on life? This service responds to cardiac arrests, road accidents, strokes, children knocked down - all life-threatening cases. "Scotland, which has a population similar to ours, has 8,300 firefighters - we have 3,400 firefighters. "We have one chief to every 29 firemen in this country. "In 1988, we went on strike. We had to deal with 60,000 incidents - 20 years later, we have to deal with 125,000 incidents but only one extra fire ambulance. "There are 37 chiefs and 100 assistant chiefs - if we had 37 Garda Commissioners and 100 Assistant Garda Commissioners, there would be national uproar. "If we need to impose a cut, look at the managerial level. In reality, these cuts are not an option. The city will be in crisis." CAPTION(S): STRESSED OUT Fire fighter |
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