Our local station is recruiting as they are short of day cover – my boss has actually approached me to suggest I sign up and said that he’s happy to release me for it. I’m working 5 minutes up the road so ideally placed really.

I’m really interested but would appreciate any first hand experiences from any of you who actually doing it – particularly in terms of the training committments beyond the regular drill nights – we’ve got a little boy and both work full time so would need to juggle childcare as well as work.

Just as background, it’s a small, fully retained rural station on the edge of Dartmoor. I’m due to speak to some of the local team but I’m guessing most of the shouts are RTAs, agricultural fires and domestic stuff.

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Theres a sign up at our local shop asking for volounteers, says you need to live/work within a couple of mins of the station.
I want to know if its live and work, or live or work.
If you do speak to them ask for me?

Good luck with it

I’ve done it for seven years now and I love it but dont underestimate the commitment required. You will end up stuck in the town and not drinking or not able to get out and ride when the mood takes you. It’s a great thing to do brilliant life experience and a nice bit of cash but as I’ve said huge commitment

and not drinking

doesn’t seem to apply to some of our retained colleagues i meet at jobs. If i was to turn up at work smelling of fresh alcohol my feet wouldn’t touch the ground. However they seem untouchable. 🙄

Sweepy – it depends on what hours you’re covering as far as I’m aware. There are options to provide either full cover which is on call for 120 hrs over the week, or day crewing only, for which you get about half the annual retainer. Our local station is specifically looking for day crew cover during the week – 9 to 6 as I understand it (which are the hours I’m at work). As such, the not drinking thing is less of an issue (I don’t touch it Monday to Friday anyway!).

The bit I was really looking to get a handle on is the training commitment beyond the weekly drills – is it evenings, weekends, residential? Would appreciate your views.

I have been retained for 5 years and offer 75% availability which is a minimum of 84 hours. I find this level of commitment achieve able without any impact on my private life. For our station 100% availability is 120 hours which would be a serious commitment for me. Training wise other than a weekly 3 hr drill night I am required to attend 2 days swift water rescue training and 2 days powerboat training. Anything else such as community work or home fire safety checks are optional.

Hello Sprocket Jockey,
I’m a retained duty system Crew Manager for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. In my opinion, if you can give it a shot then do so, i joined 6 years ago and its one of the best things i’ve ever done! Training requirements for us are roughly.. 2 weeks initial training, 1 week Operational Breathing Apparatus Wearer, 2 days Haz Mat, 2 days Compartment fire behaviour, 3 days RTC, 1 day Swift Water, and various other bits and bobs, untertaken over probably your first 2 yrs of service to gain competent firefighter status. Following that, theres all sorts of other options, driving, promotion courses to sit up front at incidents etc.

Its a pretty big commitment by any stretch, but the sense of team work and the slightly hokey sounding idea of your watch becoming and extended family makes it worthwhile, there can or should be some excellent banter in the back of pump on a well run station!

Call into your local station on a drill night and as to have a chat with the Watch Manager and they should fill you in.

Any additional info feel free to drop me a PM

Good Luck
JA

To give an idea of the variety btw, on a quiet rural station, Reeth in Swaledale for anyone who knows it, this week i’ve attended…
Building Fire Make Pumps 5
RTC 2 Persons Trapped
Automatic Fire Alarm x 2
Child stuck in toilet…

Its a varied old game 😉

Thanks guys – really appreciate the advice. Going to speak to the watch manager next week if I can.

My mums sperm man was a retained, gave him the ideal excuse to get away and shag ‘the other woman’. He’d run through the house and yell ‘fire gotta go’. Only hose he wanted to set off was the one in his pants. Other than that I know nothing about it sorry 😆

emma – I’m sure that’s helpful. Or not?

My BIL is a full time timer and instructor. He spends a lot of his time with retained stations (rural Scotland). Just go for it! They do the same thing, but less recognition maybe. His team train and share vehicles in incidents etc. There is no 1st / 2nd etc etc. All part of the team. If I had a retained station anywhere near me I’m sure he’d press me to join.

Lol, it wasn’t supposed to be helpful. I was putting forward a ‘use’ for being retained 🙂

emma- gotcha!

Lol, it wasn’t supposed to be helpful. I was putting forward a ‘use’ for being retained

That’s me busted then!

Pah