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Do you have what it takes to be a Whitby firefighter?
HAVE you ever dreamed of wearing a uniform, climbing on board a fire engine with its flashing lights and siren sounding and heading off to help in an emergency?
Well, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is recruiting retained firefighters and people don't even have to give up their day job.
Whitby Gazette chief reporter Alex Fredman meets four firefighters who live that dream every day and finds out how you can do it, too
There are more than 40 retained firefighters in the Whitby area based at Lythe, Robin Hood's Bay and Danby, while seven volunteer firefighters are in Goathland.
Three of the Whitby area's retained firefighters are women, with one each making up the crews at Danby and Robin Hood's Bay and a volunteer firefighter in Goathland.
Retained firefighters only work part-time and usually have another form of employment.
They are issued with an alerter and, if they are on duty and are required to attend an incident, they must respond and get to the fire station within four minutes.
Full training to be a retained firefighter is provided and drill nights for training and updates must be attended once a week.
Applicants must be physically fit, have good eyesight and be able to respond to the fire station from their home or work place within four minutes. The salary for retained firefighters is around 1,454.25 to 2,020 per annum (depending on cover provided and 923.97 to 961.51 is paid per annum for attending a weekly two-hour drill night).
Additional payments are made for callouts and retained firefighters receive four weeks paid holiday. They can also join the New Firefighter Pension Scheme, too.
Volunteer firefighters are only paid when they attend fires or other incidents and do not get paid for drill nights or training.
But the role of being a retained firefighter is also about the personal rewards and the satisfaction of making a difference to the community.
Watch manager at Whitby Fire Station, Mark Naylor, said: "We aim to recruit people that are representative of the community.
''Female firefighters are great at Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) as the feminine touch really helps.
"If we didn't have retained firefighters there would be areas within the county that would be unserviced.
"They are vital," he said.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS) are an Equal Opportunities employer who welcome applications from under represented groups in the community.
Mr Naylor added: "For the employers who allow their employees to join and serve the community there are tangible benefits also.
"NYFRS personnel are all trained to a high standard in a number of courses plus first aid, health and safety, risk assessment, equality and fairness at work and IT skills, which will assist any employer to strengthen there workforce's dynamics."
The first step to joining is to fill out application form which can be obtained from NYFRS's website by ringing the personnel office or calling your local fire station for a pack.
Once complete, people should take the application form to their local fire station where the station or watch manager will assess it to see if you live close enough to the fire station and if the cover you have said you can provide is suitable for the needs of the station. The personnel office will then inform you if this has been successful or not.
If your application has been passed then people will be invited to written tests at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service's training centre in Easingwold and you will have three chances to pass these tests.
If you pass the written tests, you will then be invited to attend physical tests, again at the training centre and again there will be three chances to pass these.
Once all the physical tests have been passed, potential recruits will be invited to interview and then to a medical.
If all these stages are passed, people will then be invited to attend a two-week residential course at the training centre before going on to their station.
New recruits will attend a two-week initial training course where they will learn and experience new skills and build friendships with colleagues along the way.
This will be followed by four modular courses all designed and programmed at key stages throughout the development phase, which is a two-year period minimum followed by one further module.
On completion of the course, new firefighters will be on station applying the skills learned and acquiring new skills for the next development course.
After six months has passed they will then be assigned an NVQ assessor who will support the new firefighters through NVQ Level 3 Fire Operations in the Community.
This includes the working of the fire engine – known as the pump – in the job, breathing apparatus, road traffic collisions and how to cut people out of vehicles, hazardous materials and the characteristics of fire including training in real life situations.
Being a retained firefighter is the opportunity to try something totally different from your day job with the prospect of eventual acceptance into the fire service full time.
Anyone interested in joining North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service can log on to www. northyorksfire.gov.uk or give the personnel office a call on (01609) 788563.
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Weather for Whitby
Sunday 05 February 2012
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Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
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