24 June 2008

Retained Duty System - Core Skills Demonstration Day

Nine trainee firefighters from across the County of East Sussex have successfully completed a Retained Duty System course and are now operational firefighters on the Retained Duty System (RDS). This compliments the Wholetime and Day Crewed Duty Systems, which combine to provide operational fire cover across the County of East Sussex.

The training course held at the Service Training Centre at Maresfield is at the cutting edge of firefighter training and accurately reflects the demanding and unpredictable nature of a firefighters job. The trainee firefighters have trained intensively for two weeks on core skills such as ladder and hose training, water safety and incident command. East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service have also worked together with Sussex Police and South East Coast Ambulance Service and subsequently, this has enabled the Service to provide a much deeper level of training with regard to road traffic collisions.

The trainee firefighters have completed rigorous assessments to ensure they are ready for the next phase of their development, which will continue with further core skills training and assessments over the coming year. A core skills demonstration event took place on Friday 27th June 2008 at the Service Training Centre and offered the trainee firefighters an opportunity to demonstrate their new skills in front of family, friends and employers. Members of East Sussex Fire Authority also attended the event along with senior officials from East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service.

Retained firefighters are an integral part of the response capabilities of East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service. Over 95% of retained firefighters in East Sussex do their firefighting work alongside their existing commitments or day job. They all carry alerters and respond to the local fire station within five minutes of receiving the emergency call.

East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service currently has vacancies for retained firefighters across the County. Anybody interested in applying or finding out more can either visit the website (www.esfrs.org) or leave a message on 01323 462349 for an information pack.