Launch of Waterford Civil Defence Rescue & Recovery Boat

27 June 2022

Saturday 25^th June was a very proud day and poignant one for Waterford City Civil Defence as at a special blessing their new rescue and recovery boat named the Dara Fitz was launched.

The boat is named after Captain Dara Fitzpatrick who served in the Waterford based rescue 117 and then in the Dublin based rescue 116, where she and fellow crew mates Chief Pilot Mark Duffy, winch operator Paul Ormsby, and winch man Ciarán Smith were sadly killed while on a mission in March 2017.

The ceremony was attended by Dara’s family members, close friends and Civil Defence volunteers. The Dara Fitz is owned and maintained by Waterford City Civil Defence and is used in conjunction with Waterford City Fire Service as a first turn out vessel for the rescue and recovery of persons from the river Suir.

As with her predecessor the Darren K Civil Defence hopes the new addition will aid in saving as many lives, and bring closure and some sense of peace to families in the recovery of loved ones lost at sea.

It’s the profound wish of the Civil Defence organisation that the rescue boat Dara Fitz like the incredible person she is named after, will be heard over the radio waves responding to, and rescuing persons in distress, as Dara herself did on so many occasions.

 

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