Wexford Civil Defence volunteers from New Ross, Wexford and Gorey units provided Medical cover for the 67th Bannow & Rathangan Agricultural Show on Thursday 14th July 2016, which was attended by approx 15,000 visitors. This is County Wexfords biggest Agricultural Shows held ever year and one of the busiest events that Wexford Civil Defence covers. Ambulance and first aid cover was provided by 21 volunteers from 8am – 8pm. Due to the size of show area the following vehicles were utilised
Wexford Civil Defence took part in the regional Swift Water and Boating Exercise in Graiguenamanagh, County Kilkenny on Saturday 28th November 2015. Teams from Kilkenny, Carlow, Tipperary, Waterford and Waterford County took part. The exercise was carried out between Graiguenamanagh and Glasganny allowing boat crews to operate the lock systems en route.
The Swift Water exercise put Swift Water Responders and Swift Water Rescue Technicians through their paces. The teams training covered throw bagging, conditional rescues, strainer swimming, and defensive and aggressive swimming techniques.
More than 100 volunteers from all over Wexford attended service awards at Wexford County Council’s annual Civil Defence Awards Presentation Ceremony. The function, in the Riverbank House Hotel, was attended by County Council Chairman Cllr Tony Dempsey, Council Chief Executive Tom Enright, Director of Services John Carley, Chief Fire Officer John Maher,Chief Superintendant John Roche and Stephen Hall, Principal Officer National Civil Defence College.
The awards were presented following months of rigorous training by the 110 male and female volunteers of Wexford Civil Defence.
Civil Defence Officer Gabrielle Willis outlined the work that was carried out during the year: 63 Local courses in various disciplines were run and certificates were give out for Rope Rescue Instructors, two qualified, Rope Rescue Level One Operator, seven qualified, Field Skills course, eight qualified, Swiftwater and Flood Responder Instructor, one qualified, Swiftwater & flood responders, four qualified, Water and Flood Awareness, 47 qualified, Cardiac First Responder, 22 qualified, Cardiac First Responder Instructors, 3 qualified, Occupational First Aid, 24 qualified, OFA QQI, 16 qualified, Emergency First Responders, 17 qualified, Manual Handling People Moving Instructors, three qualified, Manual Handling, 20 qualified and Manual Handling People Moving, 18 qualified.
The courses are specifically designed to equip the volunteers with essential health and safety and rescue skills to enable them to carry out their volunteer services and respond to the many emergency callouts they receive throughout the year.
Gabrielle said 15 OFA courses were run for the county councl with around 120 people qualifying and 77 Civic/Community events were provided with Ambulance and First Aid cover and Boat Safety Cover.
During the award function, long service awards were presented to Liam Healy, 30 years, Tony Forte, Jonathan McDonald, Jan Crosbie and Conor Jordan, 20 years and Danny Meaney and Denis Sheridan, 10 years.
Wexford Civil Defence is a service of Wexford County Council. It is headed up by the Civil Defence Officer who is a full time employee of Wexford County Council. As a national statutory volunteer organisation it’s function is to provide a second line response to the Primary Response Agencies ie. An Garda Siochana, Health Service Executive and Local Authority.
Wexford Civil Defence has 110 active volunteers spread throughout the County. They are all Garda vetted, and they are trained in skills such as Casualty/first aid, Rescue, Search & recovery, Welfare, Communications, Radiation Monitoring and fire fighting skills. Night training classes for the volunteers are run each by highly trained Instructors in the different disciplines.
If you are interested in volunteering to be part Wexford Civil Defence, in being highly trained in responding to emergencies or providing assistance to community events, and learning exciting and interesting skills, then please contact Wexford Civil Defence Office for further information. (053 9196265)
Wexford Civil Defence provided emergency cover for the opening of Wexford Festival Opera Fireworks Display. A total of 37 Volunteers provided the following support Incident Control Vehicle for communications support, a medical triage tent, 3 ambulances and 2 boats to ensure the firing zone was kept clear of pleasure craft. The Incident control vehicle operated our own UHF radios and mapping system to ensure we could track and locate first aid teams on the ground, the mapping element is particularly useful as it enables us to dispatch an ambulance to a specific location. First Aid cover was provided over the Quay front area and in Ferrybank. We worked along side Wexford RNLI, Wexford Order of Malta, Event Management Staff and Wexford County Councils Health & Safety Staff.
The opening concluded with only one medical incident which was looked after by our colleges in Wexford Order of Malta.
Wexford Civil Defence ran a Manual Handling & People Moving Course on the weekend of the 17th of October. Volunteers from Wexford, New Ross and Gorey attended the training weekend. The course covers manual handling and skills for people moving working with patients. The skills allow our volunteers to work safely with patients that have limited or no mobility requiring transport from community events we would cover during the year.
Training covers the use of slide sheets, patient slides, evacuation stair chairs, ambulance lift and stretchers.
Wexford Civil Defence boat crew attended the naming ceremony of Wexford RNLI’s replacement D CLASS Alfred William Newman on Saturday 26th September 2015. Wexford RNLI’s last lifeboat the Philip Robert Booth launched 112 times, saved eight lives and rescued 86 people.
A number of Volunteers from Wexford Civil Defence Rescue completed their Marine VHF Radio on Sat 6th and Sunday 7th December 2014. The course was conducted by www.vhf.ie in our training HQ in Ardcavan. Well done to all for passing the exam and are now SRC qualified.
