Fire Control Operator

Kent Fire and Rescue Service attend in the region of 25,000 incidents each year and respond to approximately 50,000 emergency calls. 

As part of our front line Fire and Rescue Control Team, you will be responsible for answering 999 calls from members of the public and obtaining sufficient information to decide upon the level of response required.  You will do this by listening attentively to callers and asking probing questions to establish the exact location of an event and the nature of the incident.

You will deal with calls ranging from fires, road traffic collisions, motorway incidents,  workplace accidents, cliff rescues, aircraft incidents, chemical spillages and animal rescues.

As you would expect, speed of response is vital and you will use your communication skills to try to send a response within 60 seconds of answering a call.  Sometimes this will be quite simple but on other occasions you will be expected to use your calming influence to talk to callers who are distressed or in danger and you may need to pinpoint callers on motorways or in remote locations.

Once crews have arrived at the incident, they remain in constant contact with the Control Room to report on the progress of the incident and to request any additional crews or equipment that may be required.

As well as answering emergency calls, you will monitor Kent Fire and Rescue Service resources ensuring that fire engine and crew availability are kept up to date and displayed correctly on our computerised mobilising system.

Fire Control Operators work as a team to ensure that fire crews are promptly mobilised to resolve any situation and arrange for the provision of ongoing support at operational incidents to minimise loss of life and damage to property.