We need new volunteers to increase our Brigade strength and give us a better ability to manage very long fire seasons. Volunteering encompasses many different roles some of which do not involve direct firefighting. These support
roles are vitally important to firefighting efforts and volunteers can choose to do these instead of direct firefighting if they desire.
Becoming a Volunteer
To become a volunteer you need to:
· Attend two Brigade meetings
· Complete a Membership Form. This includes a police check
· Be voted into the Brigade by the other Brigade members
You will then need to complete training before you can start fighting fires. The decision to become a Volunteer is therefore a long term one where you need to invest time in the Brigade and the Brigade invests time and training in you.
Training Program
Initial Bush Firefighter training (BF) is completed at a brigade level usually over a series of days or evenings. Assessment for BF is completed at a district level.
The Training Program within the RFS is comprehensive and is organised across five bands:
For more information download the Training Information Booklet. There is a huge range of skills that you can acquire in the RFS and the booklet provides information on these and course overviews for:
· Mainstream qualifications including Safety Induction (SI), Bush Firefighter (BF), Village Firefighter (VF), Advanced Firefighter (AF), Crew Leader Wildfire (CLW), Crew Leader Village (CLV), Crew Leader Supervision (CLS) and Group Leader (GL)
· Grassland qualifications including Bush Firefighter Grassland (BFG), Vehicle/Structure F/F in Grasslands (VSG), Crew Leader Grassland (CLG) and Group Leader Grassland (GLG)
· Specialist qualifications including Breathing Apparatus Operator (BAO), Catering Assistant (CAT), Communications Centre Assistant (CCA), Rural Fire Driving (RFD), Trim and Cross Cut Fallen Trees (TFT), First Aid Application (FAA) or equivalent and Fire Investigation – Wildfire (WFI)•
· Aviation qualifications
· Incident management qualifications
· Trainer and assessor qualifications
· Community engagement qualifications
Membership Process
This is described on the following RFS document:
