DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE were able to rescue a man who fell into the water at the IFSC beside the Convention Centre early this morning.

The firefighters from B Watch in Tara Street Station – named as Rob Nulty and Stephen Breen – were able to rescue the man just as he went underwater.

Crews from North Strand, Phibsboro and Tara Street stations attended, but a Dublin Fire Brigade boat was unable to gain access.

It is believed the man was taken to the Mater Hospital, where he is in a stable condition and has been given antibiotics, but couldn’t remember how he ended up in the water.

Nulty told TheJournal.ie that he and Breen arrived on scene with wetsuits on and had to act

You had to pull yourself over a pipe to get him and when I did, his head was going under but I saw his hand and grabbed him. I just had him above the water and Stephen was holding up aswell. The crew on the bank had to drag us along the bank to where there was a ladder, but he was a dead weight at that stage. The Phibsboro crew threw a sling down the ladder and we were able to get him up.

“When we took him out, he looked frozen still and had been underwater about a minute.”

Nulty, a nine-year fire brigade veteran says that the incident comes not long after he took a swift water rescue training course, but there was no hesitation on the part of him or his newly-qualified colleague Breen.

“I only did the water rescue course recently, so it was my first time doing this, but our station officer Colm Kershaw is a swift water rescue instructor and keeps our skills sharp.

“Myself and Stephen both said we weren’t nervous at all. It was surreal, we just went in and worked as a team. We couldn’t have done it without the rest of the crew.”

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