Volunteer With Your Local Fire Service

One of the most important emergency services operating in the United Kingdom is the Fire Service. Called upon 24 hours a day 365 days a year the fire service answers thousands of emergency calls ranging from serious industrial accidents to car accidents to house fires.

However just like each of the other emergency services operating in the United Kingdom today there is a shortage of staff which can have a knock on effect if the number of emergencies rises unexpectedly which sometimes happens.

When this happens the fire service calls upon their auxiliary staff who are on-call 24 hours a day and who often hold down full time jobs of their own or indeed are self employed business people.

Indeed sometimes as with the coast guard, the fire service calls upon its volunteers to help deal with emergencies in remote areas of the country where having a 24 hour manned fire station is not always practical.

How To Become a Volunteer with the Fire Service

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer fire fighter then you must be physically fit. This is very important and something which is thoroughly investigated before any offer of a position is made. Also you must be some – if not all – of the following:

• Live within 5 minutes of the fire station
• Be over 18 years old
• Be honest and trustworthy
• Have good eye sight and hearing
• be able to attend residential courses as and when required
• Be committed to providing your local community with a high standard of volunteer service

Of course these volunteer positions are not just open to men and indeed many women have taken the reins as volunteers also.

What The Role Contains

As a volunteer fire fighter the main focus of your role will be to provide additional support for the full time fire fighters who are trained to fight both exterior and interior fires. As a volunteer you are not required to fight fires inside a burning structure but may be required to assist with the controlling of a fire as it burns outside.

Also you will be charged with the task of helping the injured and wounded to safety as well as keeping the general public out of harm’s way. One of the most common areas of a volunteer fire fighter’s remit is crowd control. Human nature dictates that many of us would stop and stare if we saw a fire blazing so keeping the public back is a necessary and important function for any volunteer to perform.

Applying to Become a Volunteer Fire Fighter

Your first course of action should be to contact your local fire station. The Chief Officer will be able to discuss with you informally the nature of how to apply and what exactly the fire service is looking for from its volunteers.

Also if you have access to the Internet look up your local fire service recruitment department and contact them with reference to receiving an application pack. Some fire services allow you to download this from their website as a PDF document.

You should also be aware that literacy and numeracy are pre-requisites for these volunteer’s positions and your local fire service recruitment officer can tell you what are the best qualifications to have and how to achieve them if you currently do not possess them.