Thread: Vol Fire crew, who is one?

@possummatti although the black and white print says 16 years you may find that your local has a minimum age of 18. Don't take this as rejection. Fire brigades are quite complex in comparison to years gone by. We no longer sit around waiting for fires but are called to assist ambulance to all status 1 calls (CPR) and other medicals as required, storm related incidents, mobility scooters with flat batteries etc. the list is long. The Fire Service has changed from Fire to Fire and Rescue and now changing to Fire, Rescue and Emergency's.
We have operational budgets based on the number of crew they say is our complement. To kit out a new recruit is over $2500. Your local brigade may already have a full complement.
A brigade requires commitment. A new recruit has to complete a 2-day 1st aid course followed by a 7-day Basic and BA course in Rotorua as a minimum. All this comes at a cost so the Fire Service (and your brigade) would like to get a good 3-5 years out of you.

The good side of joining are the skills you will learn at your age, the teamwork with people of various ages and walks in life, pushing yourself when you know that others are relying on you to complete a given task, the training they are paying for you to learn, the rush when your pager goes off and not knowing what you are going to, the social time after training or callout. That is just a few of the benefits and most of all knowing that you are only 1 of 9000 people in NZ that are doing what you do.

Go down to your local brigade and talk to the chief. You may have to make a time as the chief or deputy chief may be busy organising the brigade training for the night. If they say there are no vacancies, ask if you could go back in a couple of weeks to tag along for a few training nights to see if been a volly is what you think it is looking from the outside. You won't get to ride in the truck but is a chance to show maturity to the officers and they may invite you to keep going.
Remember it is a commitment you have to make as others will be reliant on you to be there for training and on a operational roster if your brigade has one. It is not something you can just rock up to when you feel like it.

I have just knocked up 20 years and although the enthusiasm is just starting to wane, I still enjoy doing what I do

Originally Posted by sako75

@possummatti although the black and white print says 16 years you may find that your local has a minimum age of 18. Don't take this as rejection. Fire brigades are quite complex in comparison to years gone by. We no longer sit around waiting for fires but are called to assist ambulance to all status 1 calls (CPR) and other medicals as required, storm related incidents, mobility scooters with flat batteries etc. the list is long. The Fire Service has changed from Fire to Fire and Rescue and now changing to Fire, Rescue and Emergency's.
We have operational budgets based on the number of crew they say is our complement. To kit out a new recruit is over $2500. Your local brigade may already have a full complement.
A brigade requires commitment. A new recruit has to complete a 2-day 1st aid course followed by a 7-day Basic and BA course in Rotorua as a minimum. All this comes at a cost so the Fire Service (and your brigade) would like to get a good 3-5 years out of you.

The good side of joining are the skills you will learn at your age, the teamwork with people of various ages and walks in life, pushing yourself when you know that others are relying on you to complete a given task, the training they are paying for you to learn, the rush when your pager goes off and not knowing what you are going to, the social time after training or callout. That is just a few of the benefits and most of all knowing that you are only 1 of 9000 people in NZ that are doing what you do.

Go down to your local brigade and talk to the chief. You may have to make a time as the chief or deputy chief may be busy organising the brigade training for the night. If they say there are no vacancies, ask if you could go back in a couple of weeks to tag along for a few training nights to see if been a volly is what you think it is looking from the outside. You won't get to ride in the truck but is a chance to show maturity to the officers and they may invite you to keep going.
Remember it is a commitment you have to make as others will be reliant on you to be there for training and on a operational roster if your brigade has one. It is not something you can just rock up to when you feel like it.

I have just knocked up 20 years and although the enthusiasm is just starting to wane, I still enjoy doing what I do

Cheers sako appreciate it

Originally Posted by possummatti

Cheers sako appreciate it

No prob.
The FS is a great organisation to be a part of and to be proud of. At the top it is pretty heavy and start to ask yourself why you want to be a trog with the workload that is getting worse than easier. At the beginning you won't see any of that and will be none the wiser.
The FS strive for excellence and will ask the same from you. Take the opportunity and run with it. There will be hard times and plenty of fun times

Trogs - if Stumpy calls you a Trog it is a name the career guys/girls call volleys and comes from the name Trogolite who only come out after dark