EFCC isn’t strike breaking. Strikes are broken by employees whose colleagues are on strike but they chose not too. The EFCC is providing emergency cover while regular firefighters carry out industrial action. (Firefighters deserve every penny and more by the way).
For the EFCC there isn’t any fitness trg or test or any academic test either. Two weeks intensive trg, drivers get a further two days blue light trg.
Sarge, while you are of course entitled to your opinion. If your family, friends and or loved ones home was on fire or they had to be cut out of a car as a result of an RTC. Would you rather no one came and they died or suffered as a result?
toby1234abc:
Try the public reference library, there maybe books about the exams and tests that the fire brigade do for training.Suit is best mate.Good luck.
Eh?
It’s an interview for an emergency strike cover job, not as a full time fire fighter.
I was in the army when there was a threatened fire fighters strike in the early 80s.
They had already been on strike a year or two before. Won their argument and received the first part of their agreed package. The local authorities were hanging back on paying out the second part of the agreed package.
Anyway, I was a driver and was sent off for Green Goddess training and basic fire fighting techniques.
We were NEVER going to be fighting proper fires with danger to human life.
We were going to be doing all the other little things fire fighters do, rescuing cats stuck in trees (then running them over, after tea and biscuits n the daft beast decided the back wheel was a great place for a nap), putting out over ambitious bonfires etc.
H&S hadn’t really raised its ugly head at that time. We were all army (so expendable). We got a lot of training in how to operate a Green Goddess (tank and a BIG pump) and fight fires, a couple of months anyway. No fitness tests, no book learning, no exams.
Even in those circumstances we wouldn’t be fighting proper fires. The fire brigade would come out to those even when they were on strike.
40+ years on, there’s no chance you’ll be allowed anywhere near anything dangerous. Think of the claims if anything should go wrong if you were.
The argument would go something like, “they sent you, a semi trained, inexperienced crew, to fight a fire at this address?”. How much compo’ would you like for that blister on your nose? 
The local authorities eventually completed their end of the agreement so the strike was cancelled.
You can all argue amongst yourselves now ive got the answer to my OP and its what I want to do somebody has to do it and you can all call me as much as you want. I have the upmost respect for firefighters and you are all a credit to the country. I think your braviness and teamwork is amazing even I didnt have that in the Army but the end of the day this position is available and I am doing it.
Brucewillis:
EFCC isn’t strike breaking. Strikes are broken by employees whose colleagues are on strike but they chose not too. The EFCC is providing emergency cover while regular firefighters carry out industrial action. (Firefighters deserve every penny and more by the way).
For the EFCC there isn’t any fitness trg or test or any academic test either. Two weeks intensive trg, drivers get a further two days blue light trg.
Sarge, while you are of course entitled to your opinion. If your family, friends and or loved ones home was on fire or they had to be cut out of a car as a result of an RTC. Would you rather no one came and they died or suffered as a result?
EFCC IS strike breaking on behalf of the employers (the government)! In case of life threatening emergency the Firefighters would attend - and I would much rather that some jumped up prick of a wannabe DIDN’T turn up to create more ■■■■■■■ danger, thanks very much.
Scab scum, is all…
Sarge are you a member of LFB?
reece 21:
You can all argue amongst yourselves now ive got the answer to my OP and its what I want to do somebody has to do it and you can all call me as much as you want. I have the upmost respect for firefighters and you are all a credit to the country. I think your braviness and teamwork is amazing even I didnt have that in the Army but the end of the day this position is available and I am doing it.
Remember your attitude when some 60 year old drops you out of a window because he is FORCED to continue working even when his body has been ruined by saving lives for decades…
Brucewillis:
Sarge are you a member of LFB?
Nope, just a civvy who thinks that we should all be supporting people who save lives (at a risk to their own) instead of ■■■■■■■ all over them.
Mike-C:
Maybe its my age, maybe i’m just an obnoxious prick. But i read a scab wanting to know how to dress for an interview. And i can’t quite fathom out which is worse, someone who is going to be trusted to fire and rescue help not knowing how he should dress, him telling everyone he’s going to scab, or he thinks people maybe in the job might help him with advice. God help us !!!
+!
Just where my comment was aiming but trying to avoid the word Scab (getting diplomatic in my old age), cant remember all the forum rules 
reece 21:
I think your braviness and teamwork is amazing even I didnt have that in the Army but the end of the day this position is available and I am doing it.
You’ve a nice disposition. On the bright side when you get to an emergency under blues and two’s then you’ll know why you’re there, totally unlike the Army who end up somewhere and havn’t got a real clue as to why they’re there !!
Not that i’m knocking the Army lads, i always thought braveness and teamwork was their attribute even if they didn’t have much upstairs …like how to dress. But you think otherwise…LOL !!
The Sarge:
reece 21:
You can all argue amongst yourselves now ive got the answer to my OP and its what I want to do somebody has to do it and you can all call me as much as you want. I have the upmost respect for firefighters and you are all a credit to the country. I think your braviness and teamwork is amazing even I didnt have that in the Army but the end of the day this position is available and I am doing it.Remember your attitude when some 60 year old drops you out of a window because he is FORCED to continue working even when his body has been ruined by saving lives for decades…
■■■■ off the sarge your ■■■■■■■ boring im doing it because its a temp bit of work for me, I want to do it so you can call me as much as you want, im not a ■■■■ its just a job I need money to pay my mothers care home and feed my family because we cant all be perfect like you.
reece 21:
You can all argue amongst yourselves now ive got the answer to my OP and its what I want to do somebody has to do it and you can all call me as much as you want. I have the upmost respect for firefighters and you are all a credit to the country. I think your braviness and teamwork is amazing even I didnt have that in the Army but the end of the day this position is available and I am doing it.
My Dads job was open to me at a wage I could only dream of at the time…morals, loyalty and respect made me give up my last chance at my dream job that I was actually qualified for.
Mike, I was a qualified Stevedore (army )
Drift:
Mike, I was a qualified Stevedore (army
There has been a few polls, but generally you can pick up the fact that certainley a lot of the older guys here are actually ex forces .
What else can a gung ho ex squaddie do to earn a living thats easy, doesn’t require to much brain power ? Trucks !!! Doesn’t say much for me mind as i was never in the Army (had flat feet!!)
reece 21:
The Sarge:
reece 21:
You can all argue amongst yourselves now ive got the answer to my OP and its what I want to do somebody has to do it and you can all call me as much as you want. I have the upmost respect for firefighters and you are all a credit to the country. I think your braviness and teamwork is amazing even I didnt have that in the Army but the end of the day this position is available and I am doing it.Remember your attitude when some 60 year old drops you out of a window because he is FORCED to continue working even when his body has been ruined by saving lives for decades…
■■■■ off the sarge your [zb] boring im doing it because its a temp bit of work for me, I want to do it so you can call me as much as you want, im not a [zb] its just a job I need money to pay my mothers care home and feed my family because we cant all be perfect like you.
Reece, you might be bored with me, but I am disgusted with you. You might not care what others think - and that is the problem with people like you. There is work out there where you do not have to ■■■■ on others. Enjoy your money and stay safe - try not to do any harm due to your lack of training.
Recce21 PM any questions you have about it.
There will always be people who can’t see or understand the bigger picture. I actually don’t have a choice as it’s my full time job!!!
Brucewillis:
There will always be people who can’t see or understand the bigger picture.
They’ll be ex MOD parachuted into the Civil Service ?
Mike-C:
Drift:
Mike, I was a qualified Stevedore (army
There has been a few polls, but generally you can pick up the fact that certainley a lot of the older guys here are actually ex forces .
What else can a gung ho ex squaddie do to earn a living thats easy, doesn’t require to much brain power ? Trucks !!! Doesn’t say much for me mind as i was never in the Army (had flat feet!!)
I got flat feet two, thats why I was on the port
We drank more pints than the bullets we fired, we even used to work the welt
Google ‘EFAD’ (Emergency Fire Appliance Driving)
There are some youtube videos too.
Some examples of blue light driving is that you only ever want to make progress. Not speed and run red lights.
When stuck in a jam you switch off your siren after 5 or so seconds in standing traffic. Enough to let people around you know you need through at the first chance. If you sit with your siren blaring for 30 seconds until the lights change then this can force people to commit a RTO.
Come to a complete halt before proceeding against a red light.
You know to ask the person in the passenger seat to verbally tell you the colour of the traffic light you are about to drive through at speed (You know it’s green in your head but when they verbally tell you it’s green this prevents you making a mistake if it really is red)
You need to know the basics about operating a pump too. The vehicle will most likely be an automatic, press a button to engage the PTO and raise the revs at the back door. Then those acting as fire crew will do the rest.
The above should get you brownie points.
As a current serving firefighter, I would just like to say that whilst I do not agree with the way fire brigades are crewing appliances during our periods of strike, I do, slightly sympathise with them. The government has placed the onus upon individual brigades to provide their contingency cover arrangements, it used to be government that was responsible for covering it, hence army usage, and this means that many poorly trained, and zero experienced people are crewing fire engines, albeit with at least1 or two people who are genuine strike breakers too, so at least some experience and training on the truck. If, during the period of strike, I, or anyone for that matter, needed an emergency response, I would be glad for the efforts of these contingency crews. It is not them who have caused this, but rather a narrow minded government, that lacks the spine to make the real changes required, and prefers to hit what it perceives as easy targets.
As with every industry the fire service has been fractionated and isolated and has to bow to commercial pressures, but how is the cost counted?
Lives.
I hope the tax payer would be willing to pay the extra for front line services that make us sleep safe and protect us rather than waste billions on bureaucracy and over inflated expenses at all levels of Government 
The worst thing about this dispute Drift, is that we are not asking for anything more, just to be left where we were, instead of us paying more into a pension that eventually gives is less back, for longer, and having the threat of dismissal under capability when we can no longer meet the physical level required by dint of being asked to work to 60, an age at which it is almost impossible to pass the physical test imposed.