Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Want to be a firie in the NT? There's a come and try day this Saturday - Joshua Fischer gives Katie all the details

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Want to be a firie in the NT? There's a come and try day this Saturday - Joshua Fischer gives Katie all the details · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And well, we have been talking a bit about the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Fieries this week, as as plenty of you will know.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Joining us in the studio right now is the Assistant
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Chief Fire Officer. Well, hang on, I think I got
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: your title wrong there, Josh, who are Fisher? Good morning
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Good morning kat Assistant Chief Fire Office.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Oh I did get it right. Excellent. Well, it's always
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: good to have you in this studio. I will just
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: very quickly firstly ask you. I know that we had
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Mark Spain on the show yesterday and we did talk
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: about this situation that's been reported that there were comments
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: made by the CEO of the Northern Territory Police, Fire
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and Emergency Services that have made some within the Fieries
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: feel disrespected. The union's come out and made a whole
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: raft of comments.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Josh, were you there, Yes, I was there, Katie.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: And did you feel as though, well, did you feel
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: disrespected by the comments that the CEO had made?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: You know, it's disappointing to sort of hear that there's
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: lots of hearsay that's been spread surrounding this matter. I
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: did not hear the CEO say the terms greedy or
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: anything related to that. Look, what I will say, Katie,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: is that our people are the most valuable asset of
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: our service, and without our people, we can't serve and
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: protect our community.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: So I am sad and disappointed to hear that.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: People feel that they're not supported or valued, or that
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: they feel safe to be able to raise matters. You know,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: this could not be further from the truth. Our people
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: encounter horrific scenes in devastation on a regular basis, and
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: we have a shared responsibility to support the physical health,
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: mental health, and wellbeing of our people. And the current
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: and ongoing rhetoric further exacerbates the impact of our people.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So do you feel as though you feel as though
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you are supported?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Percent?
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: We're supported, and certainly I would hope that any member
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: within our service has the trust to approach myself and
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: discuss any matter that is affecting them within our service.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I'm approachable and I'll listen to any member, irrespective of
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: their role their rank, whether they be a volunteer, auxiliary
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: or career firefighter, I encourage them to reach out. And
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: this is also extends to our chief fire Officer and
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: deputy Chief fire Officer.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Well, look, I think there'll probably be a bit more
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: political discussion about it, or a bit more discussion about it.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I don't want to put you in a situation that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: you know, that's yeah. I don't want to put you
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: in a terrible situation in any way, shape or form.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Obviously you were in the room though, as was Mark Spain.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I know that you've both now come forward and have
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: been happy to go on the record in this space.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Now I do actually want to ask you about what
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you came in to talk about this morning, and that
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: is the Firefighter Come and Try Day. Is it happening
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: this weekend?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: We've got two locations, so we've got the Fosskey Pavilion
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: at the Darwin show Grounds and at St. Phillip's College
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: in Ala Springs. So this is our com and triday
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: for the physical aptitude testing where it allows people who
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: are obviously thinking about applying for the fire service the
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: opportunity to see if they are able to pass that
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: physical aptitude test or find out what part of their
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: fitness they need to work on prior to the recruitment
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: process taking place later in the year.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So how much what do they actually have to do
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: when they come and trial?
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: So the assessments consist of both fitness and simulated on
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the job tasks, so it gives us an indicator of
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: the applicants ability to successfully complete the physically demanding tasks
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: as required by operational fire fight is at the incidents
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: that we respond to. So the physical aptitude test is
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: broken down into three stages. Where we undertake a simulated
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: jerry can carry, so that tests the upper body strength,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: the endurance, grip strength, and shoulder stability. They then undertake
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: a stare climb carrying that jerry can, so again testing
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: their upper body strength, endurance, lower body strength and power.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Then we have a rescue tool static hold, so obviously
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: holding our cutting gear that we'd employee at rescues at
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: road crash accidents, and again testing members upper body strength
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: and endurance. We then have a repeated hose drag, so
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: that's testing cardiovascular fitness and again their upper and lower
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: body muscular strength and that sort of the repeated hose
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: drag is quite challenging, so that requires someone to grip
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: a five fighting branch or hose which weighs eleven kilos,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: and then they've got to advance forward along a thirty
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: meter stretch of carpet and they do that complete in
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty meter distance in total, so they
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: do five five laps and there's a drag force of
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: twenty six kilos there.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: It sounds like it's hard.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: It's extremely hard, very hard to do.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: It had to be pretty fish.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I reckon to be a firing definitely. There's a number
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: of elements that we need. You know, it's not just cardiovascular,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: it's strength, that's endurance, it's all of the above. So hence,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: while we're getting in early getting people to come and
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: try this ahead of hopefully releasing later on in the year,
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: applications to come and join us.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: How many people would typically it up to do the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: com and try day.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Look, there is limited spots, so we do request that
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: people come in. They make contact with the Fire and
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Rescue Service through fire dot Recruitment at PFES dot NT
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  Speaker 3: dot gov dot AU by closer business Friday so that
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: we can manage how many people will be there on Saturday.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: But generally we'll have between twenty to thirty people, sometimes
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: up to fifty people come in to test their skills.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Do people usually like do they find it quite eye
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: opening when they get there and see what's.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Required of them look one hundred percent.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: And I was at our last coming Friday where there
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: was some extremely fit looking people that really really struggled.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Whilst they might have cardiovascular strength, that endurance, we're talking
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: about repeated tasks. We're then talking about reduced visibility, so
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: testing members you know, claustrophobia, We're then looking at their
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: functional strength. So there's a whole rasp of things that
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: we're testing and cardiovascular while people might be fit and healthy,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: there's a little bit more to it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like it. Well, I'm sure it will
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: be a successful day. Now. If people are after a
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: little bit more info, where can they head to again.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: So if they go to email Fire dot Recruitment at
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: PFS dot NT dot gov dot au, if they email
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: their interests there and if they've got any questions they
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: can ask them, we'll reply back. Further to that, there
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: is a breakdown of the physical aptitude test on our website.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: So if you head to PFS dot NT dot gov
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: DoD AU, if you go to fire Recruitment, you'll see
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: a whole infopac there that breaks down the whole element
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: of the recruitment process and in more detail the physical
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: aptitude testing.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Good staff for Assistant Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fisher. Good
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: to catch up with you this morning. Thanks so much
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: for coming in.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you,