Six new retained (on-call) firefighters have been recruited by our Service after completing a joint training course run between Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service.
A total of eight firefighters from the two counties have passed the initial training course, which consisted of four pre-course drill night training sessions and a two week intensive course to learn the basic foundation skills of being a firefighter.
The training consisted of learning a number of operations, including basic pump operating, setting up fire fighting jets, pitching ladders, locating equipment, problem solving, road traffic collision safety, water safety and rescue, retained working at height, casualty handling and manual handling.
The course was completed at locations in Oxfordshire, and recognises the work that is underway to share effective training practices between fire and rescue services. This collaborative approach is part of efforts to reduce the amount of time taken between recruitment of retained firefighters and enabling them to ride the fire engine to attend incidents and engage with the local community.
Six of the new recruits will be serving at various stations in Royal Berkshire and two will be serving at stations in Oxfordshire. They will now be issued a pager and respond with the rest of the crew to incidents.
Three of the new recruits will be posted to Maidenhead Fire Station, two to Crowthorne Fire Station and one to Wargrave Fire Station.
We are also currently recruiting retained firefighters in Pangbourne, Hungerford, Lambourn and Mortimer.
For more information, or to apply, please visit: https://www.rbfrs.co.uk/careers/on-call-firefighter/