Kiama’s Fire and Rescue Station is after more on-call firefighters, offering people in the area the rewarding experience of helping the community while earning some extra money.

The Captain of Kiama’s Station, Matthew Daly, says they have firefighters who are bakers and mechanics who respond to callouts straight from their jobs.

One of their newer recruits, Hayley Uren, is a registered nurse who is on-call during the day after night shift.

“It is really flexible, you can work around your work and home life and it suits lots of different types of people. It is almost ideal for shift workers but even people with kids can work around it too,” Hayley says.

With firefighting marked as one of the most important, rewarding and well-respected careers in the community, the new recruits will be in for quite the journey.

“It is really rewarding, we get to do lots of community engagement and lots of really interesting things I never knew firefighters did. Even the training itself is worthwhile, you learn so much and gain many different skills,” Hayley says.

One of the more unusual callouts this year, when a car rolled off Blowhole Point

After a series of interviews and medical and police checks, the recruits will be sent off to complete training where they will encounter live burns, search and rescue drills, and learn how fire progresses.

With Fire and Rescue responding to fires and car accidents, and being the first primary response group for HAZMAT incidents, Captain Daly says it is crucial they have enough people on board.

“We need enough people to maintain our appliances and have the manpower so we are ready to go 24 hours a day, 7 days a week when there is an emergency,” he says.

Unlike the RFS, on-call firefighters will get paid for their callouts on a fortnightly basis but Captain Daly says this job isn’t about making money.

“We need people that are concerned for and want to help the community, be involved with the fire station and get a commitment from them that they’re going to give their time,” Captain Daly says.

“We’re a good group of people, we train together, work together, and we’re all focused on the same result.”

People with no experience and from all walks of life, who reside in the Kiama area, are welcome to apply, preferably with day-time availability.

“If people are thinking about applying, they will find out more during the application process,” Captain Daly says.

Apply at fire.nsw.gov.au or call the Kiama Station on 4224 2046. Applications for the next intake close 15 January.