By David Raleigh
A Co Clare paramedic and his colleague from Cork have been hailed as “heroes” after they saved a man from a burning apartment in Co Limerick.
Michael Marrinan from Ennis is former member of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service and served as a retained firefighter in both Ennistymon and Ennis before joining the National Ambulance Service (NAS) as a paramedic.
Mr Marrinan and his colleahue David Coughlan from Charleville, were travelling in their HSE ambulance through Foynes village last Wednesday, September 18th, when they observed thick black smoke billowing out of a second floor apartment on the Main Street.
The blaze occurred in an apartment above a businesses premises just 50 metres from the local fire station from where fire crews promptly responded once the alarm was raised.
When the paramedics went to investigate they discovered two men in two apartments located above a shop. One of the men was in a distressed state in his apartment which was ablaze.
“It was just sheer luck that we were just at the right place at the right time, we were travelling through the village, we looked up, and saw the flames inside the window, and we knew we had to help,” explained Mr Coughlan who is a paramedic supervisor based at the Mid West Ambulance Base, Limerick City.
They quickly brought one of the men to safety, but faced a stiffer challenge in rescuing the other man whose apartment was going up in flames.
“His hair was singed and he was surprised at just how lucky he was. The fire was so intense, the glass was cracking, and so for me not being used to fires, I couldn’t believe there was so many people (in the village) continuing doing their ordinary day to day, stuff, and I’m trying to warn people to stay away, because this thing could explode, you just don’t know,” Mr Coughlan said.
The two Limerick-based paramedics also evacuated staff from a pharmacy located on the ground floor of the apartment complex.
“The smoke was just toxic, black smoke coming up out of there, it was lethal black smoke coming out,” offered paramedic Mr Marrinan,.
“Some people tend to have heaters in apartments, so we didn’t know, there could have been a cylinder of gas in there, which is a potential small bomb, so you don’t know what is involved sometimes,” Mr Marrinan said.
“So, you just have to keep back and keep a safe distance and get everyone away, and just make sure it was ok.”
After both brave paramedics brought the two men away from the fire, the y were still concerned others might have still being in the burning building.
“I would be just paranoid from the old days in the fire service that, people in a burning building tend to fall behind a door or something like that, and you couldn’t live with yourself if you thought there was someone two feet inside the door, that kind of thing,” said Mr Marrinan.
“There was black topic smoke flying out the windows and the doors, you couldn’t breath in it, you couldn’t breath or see in that,” he went on.
“So, after parking up the ambulance we contacted Ambulance Control and asked them to call the Fire Service and Gardai to attend the scene, and all the services worked very well together.”
Both paramedics simply shrugged their shoulders and laughed at the suggestion they are heroes.
“No we are just doing our job, you couldn’t but stop,” said Mr Coughlan.
His colleague was just as modest in reply: “You couldn’t go home at night in peace if you were passing and didn’t stop and do the bare minimum, and make sure the place was safe, and make sure everyone was out, and get whatever information we could to pass onto the appropriate services when they arrived.”
The two local heroes transported the man from the scene to University Hospital Limerick for treatment “and we were able to say to the man he was a lucky man, his time was not up,” added Mr Coughlan
“He was a nice man, he was just in shock, he couldn’t believe it, and as time went on he realised then how lucky he was, and he was worried about all his personal belongings that went up in the fire.”
Limerick-based NAS ambulance officer Keith Mullane said: “They are absolutely brave guys, heroic guys, I think for ambulance staff going about their medical duties to engage with a person who needed to be recused is fundamental to us, and we are delighted this is the type of staff we have in the National Ambulance Service, who will go above and beyond to help a member of the community when they are in trouble.”
“We are so proud that they stopped and engaged and assisted that gentleman to remove him from the danger.”
“Our staff are trained to save lives, but not so much in regard to this type of situation, and for what they did on the particular day, we are really proud of them,” Mr Mullane said.
Reminding the public generally to make sure they have safeguards in place against fires, Mr Mullane said: “We are coming into the winter time and it’s getting a bit colder, and we will start burning fuel that we haven’t been doing for the summer, so from our perspective, I’d like to remind all members of the public to ensure they have a functioning smoke alarm in their homes, and if they are in any trouble at any stage to call 999 straight away.”
*Additional reporting Pat Flynn