Rural firefighter comes to defence of NI fire chief Peter O’Reilly as he quits without explanation after mere six months in job

Keith Elliott, a DUP councillor in Enniskillen who also works as an on-call fireman, said Mr O’Reilly had been driving forward a plan to have both firefighters and ambulance crews dispatched to medical emergencies like heart attacks, in case the fire brigade can reach the patient more quickly.

Whilst this has reportedly faced strong objections from the Fire Brigades Union, Mr Elliott supports the idea, and said he had been impressed by Mr O’Reilly when he visited his Enniskillen station a couple of weeks back.

“I hope that, going forward, this still goes ahead, and the proper training can be given to get that back on the road,” he said, pointing out that in rural places like Fermanagh, ambulance cover can be scant.

“People forget sometimes that a retained firefighter lives and works in his area, so if you get a call out there’s a good chance you know where you’re going to,” he said.

“If there is something I could do to preserve someone’s life, in a medical emergency, bring it on.”

Mr O’Reilly faced stiff criticism upon being selected as the Province’s new head firefighter because of mistakes he made in the emergency response to the Manchester Arena atrocity in May 2017.

He had been in charge of the Manchester brigade’s response to the bombing.

Firefighters who had been so close to the scene that they heard the bomb go off had instead been instructed by bosses to drive three miles in the opposite direction, an inquiry was told.

And once the fire brigade did arrive two hours later, its contribution consisted of 12 firefighters – the same response as to a domestic house fire, the inquiry heard.

While all this was happenning, survivors were being hauled out of the blast scene on crash barriers because of a lack of rescue crews, whilst the personnel under Mr O’Reilly’s command included specialist teams with stretchers and enhanced first aid units.

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The fire brigade did not give any explanation for why Mr O’Reilly has quit so soon.

It said only this: “Peter O’Reilly, Chief Fire & Rescue Officer, notified the Chair of Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue of his resignation on Thursday,10 March 2022.

“Peter is required, by contract, to work a three month notice period until 10 June 2022.

“Peter was appointed on 1 September 2021 following an open recruitment exercise.”

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