Golden Square Fire Brigade wants at least 10 new firefighters to build on the station’s capacity to respond to emergency calls.
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Brigade captain Tim McNeilly says regional stations rely on volunteers to support career firefighters, and with the station receiving about 200 emergency calls annually the new recruits would be vital in maintaining service delivery standards.
“Volunteers are vital to the running of fire brigades in regional areas and are an important support network for the state’s CFA resources. The Golden Square Fire Brigade is 100 per cent run by volunteers,” Mr McNeilly says. “We really need people who live within three to six minutes of the Golden Square Fire Station and are able to respond to emergency calls during the day.
“We are finding it harder for people who work to leave their employment during the day, and as we need to deliver on our service standards to the CFA we need people who are available to respond within a set time frame.”
The brigade’s service delivery standards require a first vehicle to be on the road to a call out within four minutes of the request being received, Mr McNeilly says, which makes it vital that volunteers are within close proximity to the station on High St, Golden Square.
The recruitment call is open to all people aged at least 18 years and of a reasonable fitness, Mr McNeilly says, as volunteers are needed to undertake certain tasks when called to emergencies. In return, volunteers become part of a social group that is motivated and passionate about its community.
“We have 25 active fire fighters, with a total of 57 members, who attend to calls for fires, car accidents and requests for other help. We are very proactive in member retention and we give back to people who volunteer with us by having regular activities for everyone to participate in. We want to ensure our volunteers remain motivated and have a chance to get to know the people they could be called out to a job with.”
Volunteers spend an initial eight weeks training with the brigade, then move on to a CFA program that focuses further on manual skills.
“All recruits need to complete all training before becoming an operational (bush) firefighter. The initial training weeks are the base minimum and over the next two years they can train up to the urban firefighter level,” Mr McNeilly says.
“Because we are the first unit that would respond into the centre of the city, an urban environment, to support the career firefighters we need ours to be trained in dealing with fires in buildings.”
A recruitment information night will be held at the station on July 16 at 7pm.