Charlie retires after 41 years of firefighting

WHEN Charlie McGrath hit 60 at midnight on January 4, his increased age wasn’t the only thing weighing on his mind. The opening minutes of his sixth decade marked the end of Charlie’s time as a firefighter in Kilkee. He joined the service as a 19-year-old, 41 years ago in 1971, serving as an officer in the Kilkee station for 39 of those years. His longevity in the service outstrips every firefighter in the county.
“In that time, I was fireman for two years, sub-officer for nine years and station officer for 30 years,” Charlie told The Clare Champion.
During his 41-year stint, Charlie attended 2,000 call-outs in the Kilkee, Doonbeg and peninsula areas.
“It varied from haybarns in my early days to bog fires, flooding, road traffic accidents and numerous types of fires,” he recalled.
Loss of life was sometimes an unfortunate accompaniment to the call-outs. “That was the hard part of it. Being a small community and as a fuel merchant, going from door to door in West Clare, I knew everybody and if I didn’t know the immediate family, I’d know all their relations,” he said.
“The thing I always found difficult was if you arrived at a scene at maybe two or three o’clock in the morning and if it was confirmed that there was a fatality involved, you had to go down on your knee and do the Act of Contrition for them because the priest wouldn’t be on site maybe for another half an hour,” he reflected.
Whether the incident was a car accident or a house fire, family members would sometimes arrive at the scene.
“The next of kin would find out about it and they’d arrive. They’d be standing on the roadway and they’d be asking questions about what happened. We had good counselling. There’s a counsellor available to us but you didn’t think of it at the time. You just got stuck in, did the job and then went away from it. But the hard part of it was when somebody found out that one of their own relations was involved in an accident. You’re standing there and you don’t know what to say to them.”
A firefighter never knows when they’ll hear their bleeper going off.
“Time didn’t matter. Once the alerter went off, you didn’t know what scenario you were facing until you got to the fire station. If it was a road traffic accident, you’d be wondering to yourself ‘is it one of my own family that’s involved in this?’ That’d be running through your head as well,” he acknowledged.
Currently, there are 10 people attached to the fire service in Kilkee. In Charlie’s experience, once you were on call, the rest of your life had to be put on hold.
“If you’re leaving town then you have to notify the station officer and get a change of duty so that someone will cover you. It’s not a thing of saying ‘I’ll go to a match in Doonbeg tomorrow evening’. It’s the station officer’s responsibility to guarantee a crew at all times,” Charlie explained.
“There’s a crew on every week from Monday morning to the following Monday morning. They change over then with the opposite crew. There’s a crew on all the time, 24 hours a day. Once the alerter goes off, I can guarantee you that seven or eight people will turn up for that call,” he added.
About 10 years ago, Charlie’s firefighting life flashed before him. For a few frantic minutes, he thought he had lost some of his crew.
“There was a local workshop that went on fire one morning in Kilkee. I remember going to the call. The flames were at the back of the building. They raced around the building in seconds. There was an oil tanker beside the building with about a thousand gallons inside in it. Within seconds it exploded. It was like a time bomb going off. I thought I’d lost two firemen. That’s the worst fright I ever got,” he revealed.
During his 39 years as station officer in Kilkee, Charlie is proud and relieved to note that no firefighter has lost his life under his watch.
“I never had a loss of life or injury with any of my crew under me. I always feel proud about that. I wouldn’t put them into a building that I wouldn’t go into myself.” ‘If I can’t go in, ye won’t go in’ was his mantra.
Charlie cites the support of his wife Delia, their five children and Martin ‘Foxy’ Kelly, who works for him in his fuel and garden centre business, as hugely beneficial to his firefighting career.
Still getting used to life as a retired firefighter, Charlie is confident he will manage.
“I found it very difficult. It felt like a part of my life had been taken away but I have to move on. I have my service done.
“I’m now looking forward to going to Kenya on Friday for two weeks with the Fr Martin Keane Building of Hope Project. It’ll be good therapy for me. I’ll be out of here and I’ll come back a fresher man,” he predicted.
While labouring in Kenya, Charlie will have to aid the laying of 30,000 blocks. When he comes home, he’ll work on readjusting to his new life.
“This doesn’t mean I’m going to sit at home and look out the door. I’m going to get involved in some voluntary service one way or the other,” he laughed, adding that he will continue to wash cars in aid of the West Clare Mini Marathon on Saturday, January 28.
Between now and then, Charlie will have time to reflect on 41 years of unstinting service to his community, often in exceptionally trying circumstances.