Always dreamed of being a firefighter? North Yorkshire fire service hiring full-time staff for first time in ten years
As lots of firefighters are expected to retire from the service over the next few years, it is running a recruitment campaign to ensure enough staff are available to crew the fire engines.
Chief Fire Officer Andrew Brodie said: “We constantly recruit on-call firefighters. Over recent years some of those, along with transferring firefighters from other services, have joined as wholetime firefighters.
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Hide Ad"It’s been ten years since we last welcomed applications from the public for wholetime firefighters."
These days the role of firefighters is much more than attending emergency incidents - they also work to educate communities on safety and deliver activities and events.
Chief Fire Officer Brodie continued: “We need people who are caring, compassionate and creative, who enjoy working as part of a team and who want to make a truly positive difference to people.
“Such a varied role, needs a varied workforce and we welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We need to improve our diversity to reflect our diverse communities, so we are particularly interested in groups who are under-represented within the Service currently.
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Hide Ad“It is important to emphasise that all applicants must go through the same recruitment process and achieve the same standards in the assessments in order to become a wholetime firefighter.
“Our message is simple; this is great opportunity to join a brilliant organisation. So if you’ve always dreamt of becoming a firefighter or you’ve never considered it before but think it could be the job for you, we’d love to hear from you.”
Candidates have to pass seven stages in the recruitment process, including situational judgement, ability and physical tests as well as an interview and a medical.
Successful recruits will then be sent on a 12-week training course which starts next January.
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Hide AdJulia Mulligan, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said: “This is an important development within North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and shows how much work has been done over the past six months since the transfer of governance.
"I promised to listen to firefighters, fire service staff, residents and businesses about what their priorities were for the service and this open recruitment campaign, the first for a decade, is a result of what they said.
“Despite the huge financial pressure we face, we are committed to developing and improving North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. I hope this shows that determination in action. I also hope that anyone interested in joining the brilliant men and women who currently work as both wholetime and on call firefighters consider applying for these important roles.”
The recruitment window opens on July 1 and close on July 14.
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Hide AdThe Fire Service is holding a number of awareness events for people who may be interested in applying.
Places at awareness events can be reserved using this Eventbrite link.
Details of these are below:
Awareness Events
York fire station
Friday June 14: 9am-12noon
Training Centre, Easingwold
Saturday June 15: 10.30am-1pm
Harrogate fire station
Sunday June 23: 2pm-5pm
Scarborough fire station
Sunday June 30: 10.30am-1pm
Female Only Awareness Events
York fire station
Monday June 24: 6pm-8.30pm
Scarborough fire station
Tuesday June 25: 6pm-8.30pm
Harrogate fire station
Wednesday June 26: 10.30am-1pm
Training Centre, Easingwold
Friday June 28: 5.30pm-8pm
Malton fire station
Saturday June 29: 10.30am-1pm