Up to half Ireland’s fire stations could close in the coming days as a strike by retained firefighters continues.
The dispute is around staffing levels, which SIPTU says is threatening the vital community resource.
Retained firefighters are men and women who are on-call to respond to a range of emergencies, many of whom have other full or part-time jobs.
SIPTU Public Administration and Community Division Organiser, Karan O'Loughlin, told Newstalk Breakfast the strike has been a long-time coming.
"The deterioration of the Retained Fire Service over the last number of years has been a matter of concern," she said.
"It has come to a head right now, where the conditions under which they work have deteriorated so much.
"The service is collapsing on its knees.
"There have been talks after talks after talks for quite some time now, not delivering anything of significance".
'€700 a month'
Ms O'Loughlin said the conditions include a recruitment and retention crisis.
"Many are leaving the service, so that means that, in whole swathes of the country, the services are under-crewed [and] many of the stations are under-crewed," she said.
"It puts a lot of pressure on the service.
"As well as that you have the conditions under which the firefighters work – they're on call 24/7, 365 days a year.
"For this, they earn roughly around €700 a month, and they must live and work within 3km of the station at all times".
'Contingency plans'
Ms O'Loughlin said station closures will be on a rolling basis.
"There will be a rolling closure of stations - up to 50% of stations in any one county could be closed for any period of 24 hours, and there is a roster for that," she said.
"We've been at pains all of the week and last week to try and get contingency plans in place with each local authority.
"The local authorities have not been meeting their responsibility in this regard, but we're doing everything we can to ensure that life cover and the threat of serious injury - so emergencies will be responded to".
Asked what will happen if their requirements aren't met, Ms O'Loughlin said: "From next week, 100% of stations will be closed".
