Far North region to get new fire recruits

The Cairns and far north region will enjoy the services of six new firefighters after the latest intake of recruits graduated from the Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy in Brisbane today.

Russell Clarke, Darcy Magee. Mark Parsons (Cairns), Eddie Huffam, Jason Ryan (Tablelands) and Nathan Sandford (Innisfail) will undergo inductions at their new stations over the next week before beginning work on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

Member for Cairns Desley Boyle said the recruits had just completed 16 weeks of intense training at the Academy, giving them the skills and knowledge to serve the Queensland community as firefighters.

“These new firefighters are trained to face a diverse range of emergency situations, including structural fires, bushfires, road crashes, chemical incidents and other rescue scenarios,” she said.

“They also have the advantage of training on our state-of-the-art live fire training pad, where they learn about fire behaviour and firefighting techniques under realistic but safe conditions.

“All of this leads to greater safety for our firefighters on the job and increased safety for the community.”

Ms Boyle said the QFRS recruit training course is one of the best in the world.

“Queensland Fire and Rescue Service staff have consistently proven their abilities.

“The benchmark response time for responding to structural fires in urban areas is 14 minutes, but currently QFRS staff respond on average in just seven minutes and 16 seconds.

“Today’s recruits have experienced the training that will see them maintain and hopefully exceed the excellent standards our Fire Service has reached.”

The 38 recruits come from a variety of backgrounds including personal training, the police force, business ownership, the defence forces, other fire services and several trades.

Pictures are available by e-mailing Kirby Anderson on kirby.anderson@ministerial.qld.gov.au.

Media contact: Kirby Anderson 07 3247 8194, 0418 197 350
Brendan Connell 07 3247 8992, 0437 837 976