Cork city fire service fastest in country to reach scene

Cork city’s fire service is the most expensive in Ireland but also the fastest, reaching the scene in under 20 minutes for more than 99% of fires in 2024, new figures from the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) 2024 annual report have shown.

NOAC, the independent statutory body responsible for overseeing the performance of the local government sector, assesses local authorities in several areas.

The report looks at the per capita cost of the fire service and found that Cork city’s fire service was the most expensive in Ireland last year.

The report explained: costs might fluctuate greatly from year to year due to the impact of severe weather events and that the cost per capita of providing the fire service was higher in 2024 than in 2023 in 26 local authorities and lower in just one, Sligo.

Cork city had the most expensive fire service in Ireland for the second year in a row, with a per capita cost of €105.68, up from €93.44 in 2023, and ahead of Dublin City at €100.22, while the lowest cost was Meath at €34.78.

Cork city’s fire service was also the fastest responding to both fires and other emergencies for the second year in a row.

Cork city continued to have the lowest percentage where first fire tender attendance took longer than 20 minutes with 0.88% for 2024, as well as the highest percentage of incidents where the first fire tender reached the scene in less than 10 minutes, with 84.91%, an improvement on an already high percentage, 83.29%, for 2023. For all other emergency incidents, Cork city also recorded the lowest percentage (1.86%) where first attendance took longer than 20 minutes. Cork city fire brigade took on average one minute and 24 seconds to mobilise fire brigades for a fire, and one minute and 16 seconds for all other emergency incidents, while Cork county took four minutes and 34 seconds to mobilise in respect of fire and three minutes and 31 seconds for other emergencies.