Concerns raised for health of Waterford firefighters who put out Tycor factory fire
Cllr John Hearne spoke on the subject at the May plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council
Concerns have been raised for the health of the firefighters who helped extinguish the fire at the Old Jute Factory in Waterford city last weekend.
The fire broke out in the Tycor area on Saturday evening and took several hours to bring under control.
Health concerns have since been raised due to the presence of asbestos-containing materials in the fire-damaged structure and debris.
Sinn Féin councillor John Hearne spoke on the subject at the May plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
Cllr Hearne said: “As you said, we can discuss the fire in Tycor and I know there’s a lot of work to be done on that.
“Just the one thing I’d like to [raise] is if we can monitor our own fire service or any person over there over the next couple of years just to see will asbestos affect them.
“My own mother died from it and it takes about ten years for it to kick in and we just need to look after our own personnel because they do look after us very well and we appreciate that.”
In response, Director of Services Ivan Grimes said that the health and safety of staff is always at the forefront of the council’s concerns.
Mr Grimes said: “Health and safety is at the forefront of our concerns for all of our staff.
“I was talking to the Chief Fire Officer over the last couple of days and he is satisfied that they had adequate PPP protective equipment anyway to ensure their safety when they were fighting the fire.”
Air monitoring conducted in the immediate aftermath of the fire did not detect elevated asbestos fibre concentrations in the air. However, monitoring will continue over the coming days.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has been informed of the situation and the council said it will continue to work with the HSE.
Members of the public are advised to avoid the area as operations continue and stay out of smoke.