Thread: Vol Fire crew, who is one?

Hey guys
Me and my best mate are planning on joining the Morrinsville volunteer fire brigade. Im 16 and mates 17 just wondering what we have to do to sign up and what sorta training and that do you go through. Much appreciated.

here you go , all the info you could want in one hit

New Zealand Fire Service - An Introduction to Volunteering

Originally Posted by stumpy

here you go , all the info you could want in one hit

New Zealand Fire Service - An Introduction to Volunteering

Cool cheers

You will get a lot out of it

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

You will get a lot out of it

Yea mate . I recon itd be a bit of fun and to know that you changing lives would be pretty cool. How hard is it to become a volly, is there many positions available usually or do you just go on a waiting list? Cheers

Ask your brigade mate, they will have the answers. You may be too young to be an operational volley but I know at my old station we had Cadets that were under the age of 18. You can do all the training, just not allowed at a real fire.

A lot of the rural stuff is running up hills with big packs, chopping down trees and digging holes so awesome cross training for hunting!!!


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Six years as a volley ambo here...plenty of yuck sights

Yep vol nzfs here in Fairlie heading towards 5 years. Love it


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@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

I would have thought as a volunteer organisation it would be the more the merrier ?
After all people go on holidays,go to a family members 60th and get pissed etc and either cant make it to a call or are not fit to respond so best have some spares yea?

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 veitnamcam

I would have thought as a volunteer organisation it would be the more the merrier ?
After all people go on holidays,go to a family members 60th and get pissed etc and either cant make it to a call or are not fit to respond so best have some spares yea?

Wishful thinking

The NZFS says a volly brigade can have a compliment of 20 (as an example) they will provide a budget for 20. They will let you go a % over that then the costs come out of your grant or operational budget. Each year The NZFS give each brigade a grant based on the number in your brigade. You can spend that money on what you want. Some will spend it on operational equipment, some on a pissup. We go out for dinner once a year (one year the piss bill was more than the food bill). If you go above the compliment you pay for the extra out of your grant. The grant also has to pay for honours with are medals for number of years service. A 25 year Gold Star cost a couple of thousand dollars.

In the 80s a brigade would require 20 members (as an example) to provide coverage and the service required. Nowadays the same brigade requires 24 to provide the same service. This is due to 7-day shopping, working on weekends, people going away more to 60th pissups, weekend sports etc

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

trog ..... trog trog trog trog ..... trog trog trog trog ..... trog trog trog

its a compliment ......
also , when ever we had scrub fires to go too , we are always happy when the bush bunnies (dougie) turn up , because that means we can pack up and go back to relaxing while those lunitics run all around the bush putting out hot spots !!!!!
after near on 20 years full time service in the NZFS I recommend it in all ways , be it perm, vollie , ops support, rural etc etc .... and you only get out of it what you put into it , even my wife is in the job , in central fire comms , any of you talk to her on the radio , be nice ... cant miss her , shes the only Canadian on there

I'm in my third year as a volley and actually got back from the QFF course in Vegas today. I do thoroughly enjoy it even with the varying and sometimes outright horrible nature of calls we attend but the social side and skills you learn far out weigh the short term stress of the horrible calls. I would also tell anyone that joins and goes through the recruit course and didn't enjoy it to sick at it until you've done the QFF course, it really is a big step up and a much more enjoyable course. The compartment fire training is tops and it teaches you so much.

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