Five new firefighters welcomed into fire service

Five new on-call firefighters have been welcomed into Essex County Fire and Rescue Service after completing their basic training course at Maldon Fire Station this week.

The new recruits all live or work within five minutes of an on-call fire station and will respond to incidents when paged. 

They will be heading to Braintree, Brentwood, Clacton, Manningtree and Shoeburyness fire stations.

The team completed their two-week intensive training course on Friday 22 March and will continue their training at their home stations. 

Firefighter Chloe Philips is heading to Braintree Fire Station after seeing a local advert for on-call firefighters. 

She said: “I wanted to do more to help people and I’ve recently become self employed so it’s been the perfect opportunity to become an on-call firefighter. I like the idea of helping my local community.”

More than three quarters of fire stations in Essex are staffed by on-call firefighters. They all live or work within five minutes of the fire station and are paged when there is an incident. 

This means they can go about their daily business working or spending time in their community while helping to keep the fire station available when needed. 

As well as responding to incidents, on-call firefighters also carry out home fire safety visits, attend community events and visit community hubs like schools and care homes to give safety advice. 

If you live or work within five minutes of an on-call fire station, you could be paid to protect your community as an on-call firefighter. 

Find out more by searching “Join Essex Fire”.