Emergency services responded to four separate riverside incidents in Galway’s busy city centre last weekend.
Galway fire service responded to two separate incidents of people in danger in the fast-flowing River Corrib.
In one dramatic scene, a fireman conducting a rapid river rescue got into difficulties himself, and was forced to release his safety tether which kept him connected to colleagues assisting on the shore.
The officer was attempting to rescue a man in the water upstream of Wolfe Tone bridge just after midnight on Saturday morning. Volunteers from Claddagh Watch had thrown the drowning man a life bouy, and this bought valuable time before Galway City and County Fire & Rescue personnel responded in minutes from their nearby station in the Claddagh.
Eye witnesses describe a dangerous situation where the panicking man grabbed the rescuing fireman, unintentionally dunking the officer under water a number of times. The rescuer got into difficulty, and was forced to cut his safety rope which had become tangled around his ribcage.
The officer, in full dry suit and wearing a Personal Flotation Device (PFD ), then drifted downstream and was able to extract himself by the Spanish Arch without injury. He returned to duty later the same day.
The drowning man was successfully rescued by fire personnel and brought to UCHG by ambulance, where his status was described by Emergency Room medics as “monitored”.
In a separate incident, fireman lowered a ladder down to an individual trapped on the tidal banks beneath Nimmo’s Pier. No injuries were reported.
It is understood two further riverside close shaves occurred in the city centre last weekend, but emergency services were unable to confirm.
In one incident, witnesses said a good Samaritan assisting an individual in distress by the river was allegedly assaulted, and was lucky not to fall into the river swollen by heavy rain. In another, a woman attempting to recover her dog from the water on Sunday, fell on slippery rocks at the shoreline opposite Menlo Castle, and sustained “nasty-looking” injuries to her head and face.
“We urge people out at the weekend in and around the river to be careful,” says Galway fire chief Gerry O’Malley. “We all know, our river is fast and dangerous”.
Chief O’Malley, himself a former fast water rescue instructor, said his officers are ready to respond to any call of people in difficulty, regardless of the reason as minor emergencies by water may quickly become serious.
He pointed out however, that certain stretches of the Galway River are “practically no-go areas” for his personnel because of dangerous obstacles in the water, such as at Queen’s Gap, and the eel cages below the salmon weir bridge.
RNLI boats in Galway are available for river rescues, but may not navigate past certain bridges during high tides after heavy rainfall when the Salmon Weir gates are open at the bottom of lower Lough Corrib.
