In April when our county is recruiting I'm going to apply for the fire service. I think its going to be one of my biggest challanges I will have ever done. Some people that I have spoken to has aplied 4 or 5 times so I'm well aware of how difficult it is to get in but I certainly have the determination to succeed. So today I'm visiting my local firestation for a guided tour and an opportunity for me to ask lots of questions and I have lots! I'm also hoping I can have a go at some of the tests that they had to do to pass.

So any firefighters here? Any tips and advice most welcome

iceblue07 said:

I used to be a retained firefighter with Surrey brigade when i was younger, the only tip i can give you is work hard on fitness and specifically your lung fitness/oxygen absorption rates. good luck

mdiver said:

evenstar3 said:

what?

Wow, so would you be OK for me to pm you should I have any questions? Trying to do my PQA at the moment and wording it is really difficult. I've also joined the fire service forum which is full of usefull info. My fitness is above average, been training hard for the past 4 years but always trying to better and improve myself. Just started a maths course to brush up on my skills for the tests, thought it might help as maths has always been a bad subject for me! I am going to apply for Devon and Somerset FRS, Avon is also recruiting but I believe you can't apply to two services at the same time? something about a 3 month rule but different counties do it differently?

iceblue07 said:

Of course you can.
As far as the 3 month rule goes that is normally for the same brigade and as far as i am aware there is no rule (i may be wrong)stopping you from applying to more than one brigade.
There are several things you will need to be aware of though.

During selection you will be tested on several things, be aware there will be some REALLY nasty things to see to prep you for the kind of nasty RTA's or fires you will be called to. If you have never seen blood and guts and decapitated bodies before BE READY.
The physical side is tough, you WILL be expected to carry a person UP AND DOWN a 4 story ladder, you WILL have to hang off the full height tower without hands etc etc.
One of the other things to work on is your claustrophobia instinct, we all have it, we just control it. When you are in selection they will hotbox (i know it sounds rude ) you with BA on and it is SHITTY the first few times, you cant see anything, its really hot and you have full BA on....that weeds out alot of people.
Try and work on upper body stuff as well as your legs, there is alot of heavy kit to hump around.
Oh yeah the best advice i can give you for selection is stand out and be a leader,step forward and take control when it is asked, always pitch in and listen.
Good luck !

But isn't iceblue07 a woman?

That didn't sound right
I meant women won't be asked to pass the same physical tests as men, will they?
Carry people up and down and stuff...

PANDURITO said:

Yes I am a woman! Its all about equality and diversity now! The fire service activly promotes women to the service.
I have just come back from my visit at the fire station and it was a great insight, extremely helpfull. They said I can go back and they will kit me out in their uniform and I can do some of the tests that are required...how good is that?! It will be so usefull and helpfull to be able to do all that. Its going to be strong competition this year as they havn't recruited for 6 years plus what with the economics of this world there will be more applying than usual (its normally about 40 to 1!)

PANDURITO said:

Yep we have to do everything a man has to do. Unlike the police where women aren't expected to be the same as men (physically), the fire service you have to be the same, thats why its going to be so tough. If theres a fire you have to work as a team, you can't say I can't do that coz I'm a girl!

iceblue07 said:

Wow! Good luck then. It's gonna be tough, that's for sure

PANDURITO said:

In England the Fire Brigade are an equal opportunities employer but the women have to do the same jobs as men therefore pass the same tests. When you are fighting a fire you can't afford to have firefighters who can only do certain jobs

i think that's very commendable!

Never applied the Fire service. However, i am good friends with someone who is. This friend is also a training partner of mine. As a result we share alot of the same training regime.

Going off what we worked on when he was going through his recruitment, i would suggest you look at these types of exercises.


Tabata Sprints.
HIIT Training
FB workouts (3 x a week)


A couple of months on that and you'll be a wrecking machine. You're gonna be able to catch greased lightning. You'll also have a smoking body so

My sister and her husband are both firefighter/paramedics. I don't have any advice myself, but I know it's a hell of a tough job. Good luck!

They've been going down to Guatemala for a few years now with the BRAVE Foundation to help set up legitimate fire stations (which didn't exists at all before) and to train the bomberos down there, and their colleague Paul has been nominated as a CNN Hero recently. He was also on Larry King two weeks ago. I'm so proud of all of them!

http://edition.cnn.com/vi...ideosearch

3121 said:

I do interval training at the moment, 1 min sprint and 1 min rest for 13 minutes, decided to try tabata sprints the other day and it was bloody good! 20 sec sprint 10 sec rest repeated 8 times, loved it, its pleasure and pain in my opinion!
[Edited 3/23/09 7:55am]

minneapolisgenius said:

Interesting video, thanks for sharing.

iceblue07 said:

You're welcome.

All respect due to Iceblue!!! You go get'em girl!!!

iceblue07 said:

Excellent. You obviously know your stuff, then. Tabata is great. I use it for running. Skipping and body weight squats. Give it a whirl.


For HIIT i usually do a sprint followed by one press up and one Burpee. Walk back to the start. Repeat and add an extra press up and burpee. Do this 10 times so that on your final sprint you are performing 10 push ups and 10 burpees. Absolute killer but all great training.

Hill Sprints are useful, too. Exactly as the name suggests. Sprint up a hill. Walk down. Repeat as necessary.

I would look into 5x5 strength training, too. It will make you incredibly strong but won't make you look like arnie in drag. I know girls who can dead lift more than me and they are 9 stone. I am 14stone.