Several recruits of the Virgin Islands Fire and Rescue Services Department will undergo a ‘tough’ basic training course this month, as the VIF&RS seeks to fill six key positions. Photo: VINO/File

Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Zebalon A. McLean said the basic training that VIF&RS has been offering over the past two years has been tougher than the basic training received when the territory sent recruits to England, Canada and Barbados in the 90’s. Photo: VINO/File

This is because several recruits will undergo basic training this month, as the VIF&RS seeks to have well-trained personnel within the Department, Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Zebalon A. McLean has said.

“…With the case for every emergency response agency, you cannot have enough persons because invariably, people get sick, go on vacation, and sometimes it happens at the same time,” the CFO remarked in a recent interview with Virgin Islands News Online.

Tough training

“We are trying to fill six positions,” he continued, “We have recently completed a recruiting process where we have selected some of the candidates to fill some of the vacant positions, and I believe that we can have a couple more vacancies yet to fill depending on how these work out because the training is quite tough and not everyone makes it through. When it comes to training, the public would be pleased to know that we not only have one of the toughest selection processes, but one of the toughest training processes as well.”

Not just a job

McLean stated that these recruits must, upon completion of the training, be ready to be local heroes by protecting life and property.

“It is not a situation where somebody is looking for a job, you just come and give them a job and you put them on the truck. We have to know that person is ready to save your son or your daughter or your father or your mother. And that is the case all over the world, firefighting is extremely difficult and we have persons in the department who have been to many training centres, who have been trained by experts who have gathered that knowledge and brought it back to the territory to the point where we don’t need them to do any basic training.”

He mentioned that as a matter of fact, the basic training that they have been doing over the past two years have been even tougher than the basic training that was received when the territory sent recruits to England, Canada and Barbados in the 90’s.

“If they cannot pass a single training then they will not get past the first day,” Mr McLean said, of the 14-16 week training.