Central and South Fire stations are understaffed when it comes to retained firefighters who are on call but not full-time employees.
Don Peters, Broken Hill Station Officer, said the situation at the South Fire station was troubling with 18 staff normally available and only eight there now.
“With a lot of people working on the mines it can be hard to get available retained staff but we encourage anyone who is interested to apply,” he said.
Retained firefighters are on call when available and are paid for their services he explained.
In recent times Mr Peters said some of the retained staff have become full-time firefighters, others have changed jobs and are unable to continue or have simply left town.
“We’ve had some great firefighters who were women so if you are a woman and you would like to try out, please apply,” he said.
Our on-call firefighters are trained to:
- prevent and reduce the risk of fire and potential loss to life and property
- work closely with the local community to increase fire safety awareness and promote fire prevention
- undertake all manner of rescue
- deal with hazardous material incidents
- assist other agencies with emergency medical responses and severe weather-related events.
Firefighters will be provided with resources to support their health, safety and wellbeing because firefighting involves day, night and weekend work, and can be physically, mentally and emotionally demanding.
Applications are available online and can be accessed on Facebook as well.
Do a search for Broken Hill Fire station and Fire and Rescue Broken Hill Station 238 will pop up then scroll down and you will see a post regarding applying to the service.
