Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) is supporting a national to encourage community-minded people to become on-call firefighters.
The ‘Need More’ on-call fire campaign, led by the National Fire Chiefs’ Council runs until March 7 and aims to highlight the work that on-call firefighters – such as those based in Brightlingsea – carry out and the opportunities that the service offers.
“On-call firefighters are a vital part of most UK fire and rescue services, and at ECFRS three-quarters of our fire stations are crewed by on-call firefighters,” said Moira Bruin, the county’s assistant chief fire officer.
She added: “Working in the fire service means you become part of a close-knit team, earn extra money and receive full and ongoing training so you develop a broad range of transferable work and life skills. I would encourage anyone who lives or works within five minutes of an on-call fire station to do their research and consider if it’s something they might enjoy.”
Potential recruits don’t require previous experience but will need:
- To be at least 18 years old
- A strong desire to support the local community
- Enthusiasm for working as part of a team
- A reasonable level of fitness
- Live or work within five minutes to your local on-call fire station .
The Essex service is holding an online Q&A event at 7pm on Thursday, March 4 for anyone interested in finding out more about life as an on-call firefighter. To book a free place visit essex-fire.gov.uk/oncallevent. To find out more about the national on-call recruitment campaign visit oncallfire.uk/.
• A member of Brightlingsea’s crew recently passed a BA (breathing apparatus) course, which included learning firefighting necessities such as fire behaviour, assessing fire conditions, search and rescue in hazardous spaces and correct fire extinguishing methods.
