Colin in the middle

Now if someone had said to me I would be a Fire Fighter back in the UK I would have turned around to them and say your nuts

Well if you live in New Zealand chances are there is a Volunteer Fire Brigade in your community that needs you. Depending on where you live will depend on how often you get called and to what.
Advantage is you get involved in your local community faster

We proably average out about 50 calls per year mostly to back up other areas and end up doing nothing or we mainly deal with Road Accidents with the occasional Fire. Somepeople are a bit screamish but I will tell you now "YOU will never be put in a situation you can not deal with"

Without Volunteers then when the unthinkable happens then there is no one to deal with it.

Another option is joining Civil Defence, dont matter what your background is as long as you pass the medical and Police check you are welcome.
Now how many prospective migrants wont pass those two tests?

lardyl

Bumpty bump, all power to your elbow!
Pity that I have to go to fires myself once they are out so I'm not based in any particular place for long enough to join.
Now Civil Defence sounds like an idea......but can I be Civil??

BEVS

With the volunteer Fire Brigade you need to be available when that siren goes off.
Trouble is for many , including my husband, he works full-time & long hours to just earn the crust, so is no-where near our community fire station if the siren whines. He would love to do this voluntary work otherwise.
We are involved in our local community though & he plays football for the village team on a Saturday afternoon, work permitting. He needs that R&R with the hours he puts in.

SarahB

Yep... please join the Fire Service! My OH is a volunteer and there just arnt enough! This means he has to be on call every 3rd week instead of every 4. It means we cant leave the village every 3rd weekend... unless he arranges other cover.

I just posted about how much he loves it on the Chimney Sweep thread. In the UK he wasnt allowed to join even though we had volunteer crew in the village. Some of his mates were volunteers but he enquired and they said as he wears contact lenses he couldnt join.

When we got here he didnt go up to the station, so I went up for him and spoke to a senior guy there who gave me the necessary telephone numbers. I kept bugging OH til he rang them up and went up and joined in their practise one monday eve. Hes now done his BA and his First Aid course etc... he just loves it. We live really close to the station so hes always the first there. He gets to do some really interesting things and also some public service more normal stuff too. All the other guys over there seem to love it too... its like a passion in them. Good way of meeting people too.

BEVS

So,does he need to be available during the working week? Coz according to our lot, that's what's needed. If it was every third weekend, he could sort that out, despite the Saturday work.

kato33

Something I always wanted to do in the UK is be a firefighter or in the police force. Sadly I have members of the family who are re-offenders so had no joy with the police and its so damn hard to get into the fire brigade here.

New country, new life, I think I will make a point of joinging up as soon as I touch ground in NZ.

Have you any sites I can checkout to find some more info??

Nici

karonious

NOOOOOO - someone who drinks (apparently!) as much Teachers whisky as you do will instantly evaporate in the face of a small to middling fire or even a fierce barbeque..DON'T DO IT!!

kato33

You moooo,

But oh so true and thanks for worrying about me. You will have plenty to worry about when I arrive..........like your ears after I chew them off. I think everyone will do better keeping away from me

SarahB

Yes, they do need more volunteers during the week... around here a few self employed people are volunteers... they drop everything and shoot off when their pagers go off. But definately people who can only offer their time in the evenings and weekends are very much appreciated also. Minimum age to join is 16.

poppets

pagers they've got pagers....................so why does that flippin siren go off at 2.30am & wake the dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P2L

I find the siren very haunting when it goes off. Very 2nd world war sounding IMO

We have a neighbourhood dog that howls in time to it whenever it goes off

BEVS

Ta for that.

Colin in the middle

Well I live basically next door to the fire station and that siren goes off before the pager every time. Being close I am probably the second probably the first to get there and open the door.
Trouble with pagers is they are not 100% reliable especially when the battery goes low, any ways If we have to get up why shouldnt you? Wher I used to live I used to get sick of the siren so I joined the Fire Brigade.

It depends on which areas you live on how they operate, where I live during the day we can only Guarentee 2 people who work locally to answer during weekdays. Most of us work out of the area, some are even in second brigades which inveriably we back up or get backed up by.
Its a bonus when more than 6 appear you might end up in the spare or just stood down either way a full team goes out.
We dont have fixed on call periods simply because we dont get that many calls although it is sods law to get none for weeks (10 weeks recently) then get 3 in 24 hours :curse:

SarahB which brigade is you OH in? PM me if you dont want it in the forum.

poppets

its ok i don't mind really , just unfortunate that we have a house with the siren at the bottom of the garden!!! doesn't go off much at night, only twice in nearly 6 mths (but i agree with (kev)&sarah they do sound like they are from WW2)
good on you for being a volunteers, might look into the civil defence side of it

owen

Did I read on hear you can also volunteer for the ambulance service? Think I'd be rubbish at putting out fires but with my job may be of use for ambulance work. I always did want to drive through red lights....... er I mean help people