Devon and Somerset Fire recruiting for on-call firefighters
Category: Recruitment
Publish date: 29/02/2024
Performing any number of rescues is a big part of the role, including animal rescues, water rescues, road traffic collisions and rescues from heights. So, if you’re passionate about helping people and live within 5 minutes of a fire station, this opportunity could change your life!
Who are we?
We’re the largest non-metropolitan fire and rescue service in England, covering almost 4,000 square miles. We protect 820,000 households, 74,000 businesses and a further 1.1 million visitors a year. Our service area has a network of over 13,000 miles of roads, 90% of which are smaller, rural roads and country lanes, and 659 miles of coastline. We have 332 emergency response vehicles and 1,900 dedicated staff.
We are here to protect and save.
Working with our communities and partners to prevent emergencies, our sole aim is to make people safer in their homes, their places of work and where they visit.
When emergencies happen, we respond as quickly as possible in order to help people and save lives.
A bit about on-call firefighters
You might be surprised to know that on-call firefighters make up 90% of emergency cover in the UK. They’re an invaluable part of society. Most of our fire stations are crewed by on-call firefighters, who do the same emergency work as wholetime firefighters, while having other jobs as well. While on duty, they carry a pager, which activates when they need to attend an incident.
An opportunity to work with us
We’re now recruiting for on-call firefighters across Devon and Somerset.
This is an exciting opportunity for enthusiastic, dedicated individuals who share our values to embark on a career in the fire service. Our organisation would not exist without our firefighters who work in an extremely demanding, challenging, yet rewarding role.
Everyone has their own idea of what a firefighter does - the truth is that putting out fires is only a small element of what our crews do. Our firefighters respond to a range of emergencies that may also include road traffic collisions, flooding and other natural disasters. Firefighters also carry out really important work in promoting community safety, talking and listening to people, getting involved and sharing knowledge, and preventing emergencies before they happen in order to save lives.
Individuals who are successful in this process will be employed as an on-call firefighter.
Once in role
As an on-call firefighter you’ll need to be available to respond to emergency incidents from your home or workplace within 5 minutes of the station.
We’ll need you to be able to provide a minimum of 30 hours cover per week, which can be provided from your home or workplace. There is no expectation for you to be actively undertaking any duties in relation to the on-call firefighter role for this period unless there is a requirement for you to attend an incident.
During your development in role, you’ll be trained to become a fully competent firefighter (usually within 2 years). Following completion of your development into a competent firefighter you’ll be given access to further training, skills, and development opportunities to progress in your career.
Each individual station has their own requirements in reference to hours they are looking to cover, based on their current team and the availability already provided.
All hours that you are able to provide will be considered by the station.
What we need from you
You don't need any previous experience as a firefighter or existing qualifications, but you must be:
- aged 18 or over (you are eligible to apply from 17 years 6 months of age)
- able to respond from home/work in 5 minutes or less
- physically fit and able to pass a bleep test 8.8 level over 20m
- medically fit with good eyesight and hearing (find out more about our eyesight standards)
- a confident swimmer
- prepared for the commitment and discipline of being a firefighter
- preferably hold a full UK driving licence
Interested in finding out more or applying? Please apply on CTP RightJob: N590995 - On-call firefighters - Devon and Somerset