Athy fire fighter gets promoted to assistant chief role
Clare Germaine with Athy Station Chief Phil Foley.
AFTER more than a quarter of a century protecting the people of Athy and South Kildare, firefighter Clare Germaine has been promoted to assistant chief Fire Officer with Laois Fire Service.
“She’s going up the ladder!” smiled her former colleague and station chief in Athy, Phil Foley.
“She joined on 18 December, 1997 and finished last night. We had the presentation for her last Thursday,” said Phil.
“Now, Laois wouldn’t be as busy as Kildare, but Kildare is the busiest retained service in the country. With three motorways that’s a lot of traffic, and we do far more RTCs (road traffic collisions) than fires,” said Phil.
“She was presented with a firefighter carrying a child out of a building, and that is normally given only at retirement,” he said.
“She was 12 years here as a firefighter, nine as a DM (driver/mechanic) and then six years as sub-station officer.
“She would’ve studied in the evenings to qualify in emergency management to qualify for assistant chief fire officer.
“A couple of lads throughout the county have done it this way, rather than coming straight from college with an engineering degree."
