The Town of Parry Sound’s Fire Department is ramping up its recruitment efforts.
Fire Chief Dave Thompson says recruitment flyers went out to all residents about two weeks ago.
“We need those resumes to come in. We have a turnover of three to four people per year and we can’t ever let there become a backlog with the number of members we’re needing. The training is extensive, and the commitment is fairly extensive, and we need to have those people come in,” he says.
Thompson says so far, the department has received three to four applications but they would like to see more come in. He says the town will be doing more social media advertising as well as hopefully getting some information out on the radio to try to encourage people who are interested.
“When someone signs up for the fire department, we pay for everything. We pay for the training, we pay for the equipment, we pay for the gear and it’s a fantastic way to be involved in the community if you’re a young person and it is a young person’s game to be doing this, to be crawling around on floors to be carrying 50-60 pounds on your back,” he says.
Thompson says if you’re a young person who wants to be involved in the community and has an ability to commit and to learn new skills, all those things are going to happen with the Fire Department.
“My personal belief is it’s just a fantastically fun group of people to work with. People who are like-minded and people who want to be doing what they’re doing. It’s a great experience. Anyone else who’s out there who wants to apply to become a volunteer firefighter for the town should be getting their applications in to us. We would be excited to receive them,” he says.
Anyone interested is asked to submit their resume to [email protected] before September 29