MALDON Fire Station has trained seven new on-call firefighters ready for them to work at stations across the county. 

The seven new recruits will be heading to the Billericay, Burnham, Epping, Leaden Roding, Tillingham, and Tollesbury fire stations.

Further they all live or work within five minutes of an-call fire station and will respond to incidents when paged.

All seven fire fighters completed their two two-week intensive training course on May 24 and will continue their training at their home stations.

Firefighter Jamie Bishop, who is is heading to Tillingham Fire Station, said: “I work from home as a cyber security analyst so I can provide fire cover while working from home and in my spare time on evenings and weekends”.

“I thought it would be good to help my local community.”

More than three quarters of fire stations in Essex are staffed by on-call firefighters who also carry out home fire safety visits, attend community events, and visit community hubs such as schools and care homes to give safety advice. 

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service are asking all who live or work within five minutes of an on-call fire station to protect their community as an on-call firefighter.