Donegal Civil Defence County Competition - 25th April 2010
Three teams from Donegal Civil Defence contested the Annual Charlie Faulkner Cup Competition on Sunday 25th April 2010.
The aim of the competition was to qualify a team to represent Donegal at the Regional Civil Defence Exercise to be held in Castlebar on 12th June next and to award one volunteer who displayed the ethos of being a ‘civil defender’ through out the competition with the Charlie Faulkner Cup.
The Lowrymore Hydro Station of Donegal Town was the setting for three simulated emergency exercises on three individual sites within the confines of the hydro station. The participating teams competed on very challenging sites in Rescue, Auxiliary Fire Service and Casualty disciplines.
One of the sites involved the search and rescue of the ‘White Goats Island’ area where it was believed that a number of anglers were fishing in the area and that one of them had taken ill and when others went to help him the bridge collapsed trapping them underneath and making access to the casualty difficult. In another site, the challenges of tackling a gorse fire by the Auxiliary Fire Unit was the scenario. The third site presented the teams with the challenge of dealing with the difficulties arising at a road traffic accident which occurred at the playground area where a vehicle had left the road crashing into the park, injuring four people.
Teams were tasked with search & recovery operations, diagnosis and treatment of the injured, put in place a water safety plan, set up an open source water supply and extinguish the gorse fire with the use of a portable pump. To further challenge the teams, on arrival at each site the chief adjudicator selected a team leader to take charge of the team and the control of operations for the duration of the task at hand. Adjudication of the competition was carried out by The HSE Ambulance Service, Cavan Civil Defence Line Rescue Instructors and Eglington Airport Fire Service Department.
At a function in Jackson’s Hotel, attended by Civil Defence Board members, Mr. Joe Meagher (Chairman), Mr. Bill Smith, (Director General) and Mr. Michael Maguire (Audit Committee), Team A, (Inishowen / Donegal) Joint Electoral Area Team was announced as the winning team to represent Donegal in the regional competition in Castlebar. Mr. Cathal Faulkner presented the Charlie Faulkner Cup to Nicole Mc Govern, Donegal Town who on the day demonstrated what it takes to be a ‘Civil Defender’. The day whilst competitive proved to be challenging and enjoyable and served as an excellent training tool for the Civil Defence volunteers.
Donegal Civil Defence extended sincere thanks to the Donegal County Council, and in particular, Mr. Seamus Neely, Director of Water, Environment & Emergency Services, the Civil Defence Board and the family of the late Charlie Faulkner for all their support in the work of Civil Defence within the county and to Mr. Charlie Martin, Barnesmore, Donegal Town for the provision of such an excellent site for the competition.
Link to photographs of this event
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