What Are We?
Retained firefighters provide part time cover across 29 out of 39 fire stations (Morecambe; Bolton Le Sands; Carnforth; Silverdale*; Hornby*; Garstang*; Fleetwood; Preesall*; Bamber Bridge; Ormskirk*; Chorley; Skelmersdale; Tarelton; Longridge*; Hyndburn; Great Harwood; Darwen; Clitheroe*; Wesham; Lytham; St Annes; Bacup*; Rawtenstall; Haslingden; Padiham; Barnoldswick; Nelson; Earby*; and Colne)
Retained firefighters often have another job. Rather than being based at a fire station, retained firefighters provide on-call cover from home or their place of work. They respond to emergencies when their pager alerts them, so must live within five minutes or in some instances 7 minutes travel time from the station.
What Do We Do?
Retained firefighters, like their full-time colleagues, are trained to deal with a wide range of situations and incidents. Fighting fires can be just a small part of the role. Retained firefighters are called upon to provide community education and advice on fire safety, but, when they are called to an emergency, they could be dealing with any type of incident, from road, rail or air crashes, to floods, fires, chemical spills or rescuing people trapped in confined spaces. It’s not a job that can be undertaken lightly but can provide a sense of real achievement and value.
How Does it Work?
- Retained firefighters agree to be available for a set number of hours per week. In return they are paid a salary.
- They carry a pager and respond to emergencies from home or work when required.
- Whilst on-call they can carry on with their day-to-day activities but they must have their pager with them at all times and be able to get to the fire station within five minutes, or in come instances, 7 minutes. Of course, this means that they are not able to drink alcohol while on-call.
- Retained firefighters receive full training and equipment.
- Retained firefighters need support: those who want to respond from work must have their employer’s consent and those who want to respond from home need to be aware that it may impact on home or family life.
Can I Join?
Anyone can be a retained firefighter, as long as they meet the entry criteria and are able to respond to the station within the required time.
Whether you have a full-time job, are unemployed or are looking for a career that you can fit around child care needs, being a retained firefighter can complement many different lifestyles.
Being a retained firefighter requires a range of personal skills such as understanding, reliability, flexibility and the ability to work within a team. You don’t need any qualifications but there’s a selection process that will mean you need to pass some physical and practical tests and a medical.
Before you decide to apply you need to make sure that you:
- Are aged over 18.
- Have a good level of all-round fitness.
- Live or work within the required travel time of the fire station you’d like to work.
- Have standard of eyesight and hearing that is acceptable to carry out the firefighter role. This can be aided or unaided.
- Have the enthusiasm, time and commitment to participate fully in this essential emergency service.
- Are literate and numerate.
We generally require retained firefighters to cover a minimum of 60 hours per week. Exact shift patterns can vary. For example you could be on-call during school time then again over night, leaving time to spend with children, or you could be on call during normal working hours –our biggest difficulty is finding firefighters to provide cover during day between 9am and 5pm. Hours of cover can be discussed in detail with a member of staff at our open days on stations before any commitment is made to apply.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service seek to recruit anyone who wants to be a retained firefighter, if they meet our standards of entry. However, we are keen to increase the diversity of our workforce so that we can truly understand and reflect the community we serve, and so particularly welcome applications from women or people who are black or Asian.
Open Days
There are currently no open days.
Throughout the year there will be various open days/evenings taking place and everyone is welcome. They may not be at the station you wish to work at, but they will be in the area to which the station belongs.
The open days are designed for people interested, or wanting to learn more about the role of becoming a retained firefighter. The open days/evenings will provide you with a wealth of information about both the recruitment process and give you an idea of what is involved through each of the recruitment stages.
Retained Application Process
Stage 1 – First you’ll need to complete and return the online application form.
Stage 2 – If your application meets our initial screening criteria you will be contacted and invited to take part in a shuttle run/bleep test at a local station. This excercise is used to test an individuals fitness and is made up of a shuttle run over 20 metres. You will be expected to attain a level of 9.6 to attend our Assessment Day.
Stage 3 – Assessment day excercises are based on National Firefighter Selection Tests. You will complete two written papers (working with numbers and working with information) and a number of physical tests.
Retained Firefighters – What you need to know
Stage 4 – Competence based interview at the appropriate fire station.
Stage 5 – A full offer will only be made once you have passed a medical and provided suitable references.
Training
Full training is provided to make sure you are ready to respond to emergencies and are able to carry out fire safety activity such as home fire safety checks with confidence. You will attend an initial two weeks residential training course to learn the basic skills and experienced trainers will be able to provide you with support. Within your first year you will also be required to attend futher two weeks Breathing Apparatus course and this again is residential. All firefighters are required to practice and develop their skills throughout their careers and retained firefighters are no different, so you would also be required to attend a weekly trainingdrill session at your local station to keep up-to-date. Your salary starts from the moment you start training and the Service pays all associated costs such as travelling.
My Benefits
Retained firefighters receive a salary for the hours of cover they provide, the salaries range from £2657 – £8966 depending on the station. Salaries are based on a number of bands reflecting different levels of activity undertaken by different stations. Current salary levels are shown below. Retained firefighters can join the New Firefighters’ Pension Scheme and are eligible for annual leave. An annual leave allowance would be based on the days of cover provided, for example 5 days cover would equal 20 days annual leave per annum. Other employee benefits, such as the career break scheme, cycle scheme and childcare vouchers are also open to RDS employees.
All sorts of people are retained firefighters: everyone has a different reason for joining and gets different things out of it. It’s not a job that can be undertaken lightly – but it can provide a sense of real achievement and value. There is plenty of scope for individual potential to be developed and fulfilled and new skills to be gained which will be useful to you in all walks of life.
Some of the ways our retained firefighters say they have benefited include:
- Increased confidence and self-esteem from being well trained and working with people as part of a trusting team.
- Wider skills in dealing with people in difficult circumstances or providing expert advice.
- Satisfaction and pride in helping people who live in their community.
- The ability to carry out a worthwhile and rewarding job, while fitting around other commitments such as family and primary employment.
My Employers Benefits
Employers benefit greatly by allowing their staff to be retained firefighters. Many of the skills learnt such as communication, ability to make decisions in stressful situations and reliability are transferrable to the workplace. They also benefit from having a fully trained firefighter as an employee who is experienced in fire safety, health and safety and first aid. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service can help you discuss being a retained firefighter with your employer. You can download an information leaflet for employers which provides more information to them about enabling their staff to provide retained firefighting cover.
Download Employer Leaflet here
More Information And Contact
If you have any questions please email charlenebenson@lancsfirerescue.org.uk or amandahughes@lancsfirerescue.org.uk