The Waterford Fire Service attended to 205 callouts in the first four months of 2023.
The majority of these came in the Metropolitan District, which accounted for 64% of all incidents.
Director of Housing with Waterford City and County Council, Ivan Grimes says the figures aren't exactly what they seem.
"So that's for the first four months of the year across the ten brigades that we have in Waterford. There are nine retained brigades across towns and villages and we have a full-time fire service based in Kilbarry. You'll note although it's the fire brigade, nearly half of the call-outs don't relate to fires."
130 of these came in the Metropolitan District, while 86 incidents proved to be false alarms with good intent.
Ivan continued, "They are listed as what is described by the fire service as a special service, they are usually road traffic accidents, but they also get called out to oil spillages on roads.
"All of the calls are logged. 999 calls for fire services in the Munster area all actually get diverted to an operational centre in Limerick. That centre has advanced knowledge from each of the fire brigades around the country, as to the availability of which brigade might be tied up in a long-term incident, and they deploy the nearest available brigade.
"I went to visit it once and it is a very impressive set-up."
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