Emergency services praised for response to Co Donegal tragedy

Personnel arrived within 10 minutes of the blast in Creeslough on Friday afternoon.

Firefighters leave the scene of an explosion at Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal (Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Wire)

Within 10 minutes of the explosion at a service station in the Co Donegal village of Creeslough, emergency services had arrived at a chaotic and traumatic scene.

As emergency personnel arrived to find huge concrete blocks, debris and rubble where the building once stood, the scale of the operation ahead became clear.

Civilians were already there using car jacks to try to free trapped people from the large piles of rubble.

The huge rescue operation involved the Irish Coast Guard, the Coast Guard rescue helicopter 118, Irish Air Corps 112, the Northern Ireland Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS), the Irish Community Air Ambulance, Northern Ireland Search and Rescue, Donegal Mountain Rescue, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service heart team, Donegal County Council Civil Defence as well as dozens of people from the community in Creeslough.

Superintendent David Kelly of Milford garda station said he did not have to reach out to colleagues – that all came forward for duty.

Garda (police) members from Letterkenny, Ballyshannon and Buncrana all appeared as the news of the tragedy spread.

“That’s what it is to be in Donegal – we look out for each other,” Superintendent Kelly said.

“We have to think of the people from own service who did attend. Resources were initially deployed from the Millford Garda District, assisted by members that were off-duty.

“I’m proud to say that I didn’t have to ask for people to turn out for duty, they came in.”

He also praised the “great assistance” provided by colleagues from the emergency services in Northern Ireland.

Police in Donegal said the blast led to the largest number of civilian casualties in decades, and required an extensive emergency response.

Cafes and local restaurants opened their doors to emergency workers, providing hot drinks and food for the personnel.

A local hotel also block-booked rooms for emergency staff who worked through the night.

Liam Geraghty, from the Garda press office, said workers came across a “very traumatic scene”.

“It was a very confused scene and there was a lot of debris, there were traumatised people already at the scene. Our colleagues will be provided with counselling services to deal with tragic circumstances,” Mr Geraghty added.

A moment of silence was also held at a press conference at Milford garda station for the 10 people who died in the Creeslough explosion.

Seven people are in hospital in Donegal while one patient was transferred to a specialist burns unit hospital in Dublin.

Eight ambulances attended the scene on Friday and three attended on Saturday morning.

Four doctors and four ambulance officers were also involved.

Superintendent Kelly said families have been left devastated by the incident.

“I want to offer, on behalf of myself and my colleagues that attended the scene, our very sincere condolences,” he added.

Garry Martin, director of emergency services at Donegal County Council, said workers will remain on site in Creeslough for the ongoing search and checking phase to ensure there are no remaining casualties in the building.

He said that six fire brigades attended the scene, including 65 firefighters and 20 members of the civil defence, a structural engineer as well as road service personnel.

“I want to acknowledge the assistance from our colleagues in the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, who attended with specialist equipment and search dogs,” Mr Martin added.

“I also want to acknowledge the huge input from the local community who attended in huge numbers and who contributed so much to our efforts.

“Over the course of last day and following detailed analysis of the site, the incident moved into a search and recovery phase. We will remain on site in an ongoing search and check phase to ensure there are no remaining casualties in the building.”

John Joe McGowan, chief ambulance officer for the western region of Ireland’s national ambulance service, said words cannot describe the efforts of emergency services in Creeslough.

“Each and every one of you have gone above and beyond in your response,” he said, extending particular thanks to the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and Air Ambulance for their support.

“We will continue our efforts and work with our colleagues in the gardai and the fire service until all recovery efforts have concluded.”