- The main duties of a full-time firefighter are to help protect the public in emergency situations.
- They respond to a wide variety of calls, such as car crashes, chemical spills, flooding, water rescue and general rescue as well as fires.
- With many fire crews being trained as first responders they can provide first aid until the arrival of ambulance personnel.
- In addition to attending emergency call outs and rescuing people and animals from life-threatening situations, the job entails:
- using sophisticated firefighting and rescue equipment
- promoting fire safety via talks, advice and training sessions.
- inspecting and enforcing safety standards in commercial and residential properties.
- demonstrating the use of firefighting equipment
- performing practice drills.
- working with police and ambulance service personnel
- undertaking physical and academic training.
- checking and maintaining vehicles, equipment, hydrants and water supplies.
- All staff wear uniforms, and 24-hour shift work is a standard requirement of the job. The work can be stressful and dangerous but there is a great deal of job satisfaction to be gained from providing such a valuable service to the community.
- There are two main divisions of firefighter: full-time professional firefighters and retained firefighters. Apart from training, retained firefighters only attend the fire station during a call out and usually have another full-time job. - - They are employed in rural areas and must live or work within five minutes of the station.
