VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR SEASONAL FIREFIGHTERS
Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings today called on Victorians to sign up as project firefighters to help Victoria prepare for this season’s bushfire season.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings today called on Victorians to sign up as project firefighters to help Victoria prepare for this season’s bushfire season.
The recruitment campaign for this year’s Department of Sustainability and Environment ( DSE ) project firefighters was launched this weekend with 700 positions on offer again this season.
Mr Jennings said project firefighters were an important part of helping make Victoria as fire-safe and fire-ready as possible.
“Our Government is determined to work with communities to make our state as fire-safe and as fire-ready as possible and each year our project firefighters form an important part of the fire preparation and firefighting effort,” Mr Jennings said.
“Project fire fighters play a key role in Victoria’s firefighting force and they will be working to help prepare the state for the next fire season, carrying out planned burns and other fire preparations.
“We expect the first main intake of project firefighters to start work in early October and help deliver the DSE’s burning program during spring.”
Mr Jennings said the Government was committed to delivering fire preparation efforts as early as possible.
“We have had some good solid rain so far this year so it is important that we prepare earlier because the rains will have promoted the growth of ground fuel which will dry out later in the year and become fuel for fires in the summer,” he said.
The project firefighters will complement our permanent staff of approximately 3000 staff with an accredited fire role and be based in about 80 DSE and Parks Victoria locations across Victoria.
Their duties include track clearing, road maintenance, putting out bushfires, controlled burning and fire recovery activities.
Successful applicants must hold a current manual driver’s licence and pass a fitness and medical test to ensure they can cope with the physically demanding work.
Most project firefighters work from November until the end of March and many positions continue to assist with planned burns in autumn.
Related Content
Published by:
Release Date
This story was released on 2010-08-16. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.