Wholetime Firefighter

About Us
 At West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, we work with our communities and partners every day to prevent emergencies, and help everyone to be safe in West Sussex. Emergencies will always happen and when they do, we are ready to respond as quickly as possible to help people in their time of need and to save lives.

We respond to a range of emergencies across the county including fires, road traffic collisions, flooding and animal rescues, we can also be called on to assist in national rescue operations. Just as important as responding to emergencies is the role we play in delivering community safety initiatives to protect the public and businesses.

Our core strength in achieving this is through our people who are “proud to serve” and work for an organisation connected closely with its communities and who are genuinely committed to keeping people safe and saving people’s lives.

In preparation for immediate and future Wholetime Firefighter vacancies we are recruiting for applicants to join our Recruitment Pool which we will use to fill positions that arise over the next 18-24 months.

If you are looking for a career that is highly rewarding and genuinely makes a difference to the diverse community we serve, then we would really like to hear from you. 

In this role, no one day is the same, providing opportunities to grow both professionally and personally. Your core activity will include:

• Engaging with our communities to support their education and understanding of staying safe in their homes, at work and on the roads.
• Learning the demographics, topography and areas of risk for your station ground to build your local knowledge to enable you and your team to respond efficiently and effectively to incidents.
• Attending a range of emergency incidents.
• Inspecting and cleaning firefighting equipment to ensure it is safe and ready to use.
• Undertaking ongoing practical and theoretical training, at your station and our training centre.

Skills and experience
 With such a varied job, you will need to demonstrate resilience, flexibility and adaptability. You will need to be comfortable working in a range of situations, such as at height, in enclosed spaces and adverse weather conditions. You will also need to be able to work under pressure and in occasionally emotionally intense situations, for example when attending road traffic collisions and providing casualty care.

To really make a difference to the communities we serve, you will need great interpersonal skills, be emotionally intelligent, able to build trust and be confident engaging with a diverse range of people.

Eligibility to apply
 To be eligible to apply, you must:

• be 17 years and six months of age (it is a requirement to be aged 18 years or over on commencement of training)
• be eligible to work in the UK
• you hold a full and valid UK driving licence (unless there is a valid reason that you are unable to drive e.g. a medical condition). You can apply if you are learning to drive. However, you must hold a full and valid UK driving licence at the time an offer of employment is made.