Welcome to Fire and Rescue NSW

In my first training session for the year, I welcomed a group of 19 new firefighter recruits for their induction to Fire and Rescue NSW - an inspiring start to 2022.

It was their first day of what will be a long career serving our community and I was struck by the diversity, enthusiasm and potential in the class. They start their journey with a wealth of experience – health and fitness, journalism, science, teaching, sports coaching, customer service and fire safety. Over the next few months they will learn the practical skills they need to be competent fire fighters, to work in teams in extreme circumstances and to help people in situations that most of us would run away from.?

The experienced instructors reminded them that being a firefighter with Fire and Rescue NSW is the best job in the world. ?It is one of the toughest jobs and one of the most rewarding. Over the next decades, the people in this class will be there to help you on your worst day, they will respond to emergencies at midnight and still be there on the pumps when the sun is rising.

In the future, they will respond to the biggest bush fire in history, attend an accident between self-driving motor vehicles and a driver-less train and they will climb the tallest tower building. They will battle behind the scenes to analyze a tragedy, to change legislation and develop technologies to ensure that our new vertical villages and solar panels are safer. They will leave their family to travel to a major earthquake or flood zone. They will go into the longest tunnel to find survivors, comfort an injured child, and keep their mother breathing until the paramedics can get in. They will also save ducklings from a drain, rescue a kitten from a roof top and inspire a kindergarten class to stay safe.

The team of instructors at the Fire and Rescue NSW Emergency Services Academy, at Orchard Hills, are working hard to give this class a firm foundation of basic skills, to help them be their best. The lessons that they impart will shape the skills, attitudes, resilience and readiness of this class, and will impact their careers and the communities they serve. These formative weeks will be remembered by this class for the next forty years. Thank you to the team at FRNSW Education and Training for supporting and training these recruits - your work is very important.

This class of new recruit firefighters will combine their unique skills and talents, with their growing experience in emergency response, to create the fire and rescue service of the future.?And I can’t wait to see where they take us.

Welcome to Fire and Rescue NSW.