QFES calling for fire communications officers in Rockhampton

They’re the first point of call in an emergency, helping to dispatch lifesaving resources, and now Queensland Fire and Emergency Services are recruiting for their next generation of fire communications officers.

It’s a common misconception that to work for one of our lifesaving emergency services you have to be on the frontline, but there are also heroes behind the scenes playing a vital role.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) are currently recruiting for their next generation of fire communications officers (FCO), the people who are the first point of contact in an emergency.

The QFES Central region, which includes Rockhampton, encompasses an area of 440,000 km2 stretching as far north as Proserpine, west to Winton and the South Australian border, and south to Miriam Vale.

Regional fire communications centre manager, based in Rockhampton, Sheryl Schneider has been working with QFES for 17 years.

She said the working in the Firecom centre was rewarding.

“I think every situation is rewarding, it all comes in varying degrees,” she said.

Rockhampton-based FCO Cameron Bunn.

“Every time you get a successful outcome that is rewarding, but the thing is it’s always going to be a success on some level because if nobody helped, or nobody did anything, the situation is always going to be worse than what it is.”

Cameron Bunn works in the Firecom Centre as a FCO and has been in his role for 13 years and said one of the most rewarding things for him, about the job, was knowing he’d helped someone in trouble.

“When the call up they’re looking for some assistance and I’m here to provide it,” he said.

“Everyday is different, there’s not too many jobs that are exactly the same and there’s quite a few different ones – everyday I tend to learn something new that I didn’t know so there’s many different things that happen.”

Ms Schneider said applications were open for new fire communications roles, with submissions closing on September 10.

“We do find that a lot of people don’t know that firecom exists and this role exists, and therefore the career opportunities aren’t just on fire trucks, so you can very much still be involved without being on the red trucks,” she said.

Regional fire communications centre manager, based in Rockhampton, Sheryl Schneider and fire communications officer Jasper.

“We take the triple-0 calls, we triage, we decide what resources are required and respond the best resource that’ll get there in the quickest time.”

She said people looking at being a fire communications call taker needed to be able to multi-task and have critical thinking.

“We don’t have set scripts, but we do have information we need to be able to achieve, so we need to be able to think on our feet, be flexible and versatile and need to be able to take on what people are saying without taking on the emotional burden,” she said.

“You need to have some understanding of what’s going on but if you take on the situation as it is you can’t actually help them, so for us people are going to have bad situation and if we’re not here to help them in a calm, measured way and get them the best assistance, then it’s not going to go well for them.”

Fore more information about the fire communications role and to apply visit the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services website.