Becoming a firefighter

There's a tad more to being a firefighter than extinguishing fires, posing for calendars, installing smoke detectors and rescuing cute kittens from trees.


As a firefighter you will respond to emergency situations and protect people, the environment and property from all types of accident and emergencies.

You will work closely with the local community to increase their level of fire safety awareness in order to help prevent fires and accidents happening in the first place.

Promoting fire safety and enforcing fire safety standards in public and commercial premises, you'll act and advise on all matters relating to the protection of life and property from fire and other risks.

In the role you'll continually learn and update your knowledge through a series of lectures, exercises, practice drills and training, which are an integral and on-going part of the job.
Types of firefighter
Wholetime firefighters: work for the fire service full time and usually cover urban areas.
Retained firefighters: on-call responders who usually cover rural areas. You'll typically live or work within five minutes or one mile of the fire station and respond to pagers when an emergency call is received. You'll either be self-employed or work for an employer willing to allow you to leave work immediately to attend an emergency.



Firefighters carry out a diverse range of tasks, some you'll do every day while others are less frequent. They include:

Responding immediately and safely to emergency calls and requests for assistance;
Attending emergency incidents including fires, road accidents, floods, terrorist incidents, spillages of dangerous substances, and rail and air crashes;
rescuing trapped people and animals;
Minimising distress and suffering, including giving first aid before ambulance crews arrive;
Safeguarding your own and other people's personal safety at all times;
Cleaning up and checking the site after dealing with an incident;
Taking time to become familiar with local streets, roads and buildings so you can respond to emergency calls with speed and efficiency;
Inspecting and maintaining the appliance (fire engine) and its equipment, assisting in testing fire hydrants and checking emergency water supplies;

At management level, you'll perform extra supervisory activities, which include managing operational incidents and directing the day-to-day tasks of personnel on fire stations. You'll find that the operational aspects of firefighting, although important, are a minor part of a senior manager's role in a large service.


If any one has information about joining, please post below.