The 12 new recruits were assessed earlier this week by the Learning and Development trainers based at our Service Headquarters in Eastleigh, having completed their training out on the drillyard amidst a sweltering heatwave.
Tested on their ladder pitching and hose reel jet skills, they will continue their firefighter development with their stations and future courses with the L&D team.
Firefighters Luke Thorne (Lymington), Andrew Brown (New Milton), Cameron Holmes (New Milton) and William Jones (Beaulieu) will be responding to incidents with their New Forest stations.
Rowena Burnfield becomes Stockbridge’s latest firefighter recruit.
Over on the Isle of Wight, Matthew Parr-Burman will be joining the crew at Ventnor.
Joining the on-call crew at Rushmoor will be Andrew Cozens and Nicholas Gee.
Tom Course will be fighting fires with Romsey, whilst David Jeckells will link up with his new on-call colleagues at Droxford.
Luke Shergold with Eastleigh and Graham Vaudrey with Horndean also completed their initial training to become fully qualified firefighters.
Station Manager Lee Wood said:
“Once again we are delighted to see a new group of firefighters graduate and return to their local on-call stations where they will help to make life safer in their communities.
“The Learning and Development team have delivered yet another training course designed to test and teach our recruits, ensuring they meet the standard we expect of our people.
“It was great to see the recruits, who come from all corners of our area, support each other and work as a team, a vital skill of being a firefighter.
“The attitude they displayed was incredible and they are now looking forward to joining their stations across Hampshire and Isle of Wight where they will continue to progress further with their training and development.”
On-call firefighters train in several modules during their development, attend a weekly drill night and make themselves available for agreed hours around jobs, family responsibilities and other commitments.
The firefighters come from across the county and from all walks of life. They are alerted to incidents via a pager, responding to their nearby station to jump on the fire engine.
Find out more about becoming an on-call firefighter at your local station.
