The Thomas Street Fire Station
Las Fallon an operational firefighter with over twenty-seven years service in the fire brigade talks us through the history of the Thomas Street Fire Station which played an Integral part in Dublin's 20th century history. 100 years old and now part of the National College of Art and Design campus, this fantastic building was one of four early 20th century fire stations designed for Dublin by the City Architect C.J. McCarthy. Planned in 1898 by Chief Fire Officer Captain Purcell the station finally opened it's doors in 1913 and was Dublin's first motorised fire station. Although It had the shortest operational life of any of Dublin's fire station The Thomas Street fire station played an integral part in Dublin's history with the crew responding to fires during the 1913 Lock Out including the Church Street housing collapse, the first fires of 1916 rising in the Magazine Fort, The Custom House fire in 1921 and the Four Courts fire in the civil war.
More about Las Fallon
As a fire service historian and researcher Las Fallon has published a number of articles in both fire service and collectors magazines and on-line. He was the curator of the Dublin Fire Brigade Museum from 2008-2011 and is a member of a number of fire service heritage organisations including the Fire Service Trust, the Fire Heritage Network and the Fire Mark Circle. In 2012 Las published a book entitled Dublin Fire Brigade and The Irish Revolution which documents the fire brigades involvement in Irish history and will appeal to all historians of the revolutionary period as well as researchers and collectors of fire service memorabilia. The book can be purchased for 8.50 Euro from the www.irishvolunteers.org of which Las is a member as well as South Dublin Libraries.
