Dublin firefighters ‘turned cat burglar’ on Sunday to gain entry to a cat rescue centre after workers were accidentally locked out due to a power cut in the area.
The Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) Rope Rescue Team used a winch to lower themselves into the centre in Phibsborough after staff couldn’t get in to feed the kittens. The charity’s staff found themselves locked out after a power failure in the building , with the DFB hi-line team quickly coming to the rescue.
Dublin Fire Brigade spokesman David Connolly told Newstalk this morning how the impressive rescue came about. He explained: "Yesterday, we got a call to go to an animal shelter in Phibsborough. There were kittens in need of help because there had been a local power cut in the area.
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“The staff couldn’t access the animal shelter because the only way in was through a roller shutter operated by a powered motor.” According to Mr Connolly, staff at the cat shelter had already been working with engineers to try and fix the doors and only called in emergency services when all else failed.
After chatting to the owners at the cat rescue centre, Mr Connolly said that they discovered that only way into this premises was through the roller shutter or through the big steel fire door which can only be opened from the inside.
He said: “We had a look around a carried out a 360-degree recce of the building and the only way we could get in was through a secure skylight up on the roof.” Luckily, Dublin Fire Brigade has a specialist rope rescue team based in the area that normally responds to rescues that involve dangerous heights or the need to access difficult areas.
Mr Connolly explained that the brave team got up onto the roof of the building, removing a bit of Perspex and some of the security grating. He said the cats were quite surprised to see firefighter Pete Conroy entering through the roof.
“When the cats saw the little bit of commotion with us coming though the roof, we could see them there and they were all looking up wondering what was going on,” he said. After Mr Conroy opened the doors form the inside, the fire crew helped the charity to feed the cats, who were happy to see them.
Mr Connolly said: "It is a nice ending to a rescue because so often, we do work that has a sad outcome. That’s just the nature of fire rescue but it is nice to have a story like this where there is a good outcome and it’s nice happy ending."
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