Members of Tipperary Fire Service had to withdraw from the scene of an incident last night after being subjected to abusive behaviour.
The alarm was raised at around 7pm in the Clonmel area where rubbish was being burned.
When fire crews arrived they were spat at by a number of people at the scene.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Carol Kennedy says such behaviour is not acceptable at any time but particular during the Covid-19 pandemic:
“It isn’t really. And I mean, we have to stress that, in general, this doesn’t happen us. But especially during these kind of times we’re asking people to just show a little bit of respect for all of the emergency services.
“We’re only there to do a job and we need your help to help us do it.”
Carol also says the way that they approach a call-out has also changed as a result of the current pandemic.
She says, “We’ve put a lot of different practices in place now with this COVID-19. A lot of that would be down to our PPE, so we would now always wear goggles, masks, gloves – that kind of thing when we’re going out to calls and when we’re in close contact with each other. Even the guys sitting out in the truck would wear all that PPE and that’s just to stop the spread of anything within the fire service, as well as protecting the public and ourselves.”
People are also being reminded that it’s illegal to burn rubbish and you will be prosecuted.
