New firefighters coming to a community near you

Seven new on-call firefighters have been welcomed into Essex County Fire and Rescue Service after completing their basic training course in Witham.

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, Corringham, Ingatestone, Ongar, Manningtree Saffron Walden Wethersfield fire stations.

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

Laura is heading to Corringham Fire Station and says she joined after getting really into her fitness and her career as a personal trainer.

She said: “I never thought I could do it in the past but getting fitter and becoming a personal trainer was an absolute eye-opener in pushing myself as far as I could fitness wise."

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”.