For International Firefighters Day this Wednesday, France Bleu is organizing a special day dedicated to the profession of volunteer firefighter. Guest of Wendy Bouchard in My France, Grégory Allione, the president of the National Federation of Firefighters of France, recalled that everyone could commit between 16 and 60 years old. More than 197,000 volunteers are currently engaged in France, but the sector lacks arms, and calls for mobilization.
Get out of the image of the firefighter “who is 25 years old, European, male”
But do you need specific criteria to become a volunteer firefighter? “You have to be in normal physical condition, reassures Grégory Allione. We must not retain only this image of the firefighter who is 25 years old, European, rather male, whom we see on Saturdays in certain reports or in the evening on certain broadcasts, the daily firefighter is ‘Monsieur et Lady everyone’. He is someone who loves people. He is someone who will put his time for the benefit of society, for the benefit of the population. In short, all those who are listening at the moment can be volunteer firefighters, knowing that in addition, we have the ability, depending on each person’s skills or appetite, or physical abilities, to have missions differentiated”.
A commitment that can to reconcile with a family and professional life, according to the president of the National Federation of Firefighters. Evidenced in Ma France Karine, 51, volunteer firefighter chief sergeant at the SDIS in Vienne. “I am a training advisor in a training institute for adults”. She explains that she is on duty one week out of three, in addition to the maneuvers organized every first Sunday of the month.
She who joined ten years ago felt that she was “incomplete, but I didn’t know that”. “It was chance encounters and the opportunities that presented themselves to me, which made me join the fire brigade, is something that I would not have imagined at all before.”
A call for women’s commitment
“We need women” hammered the manager. “We have a rate of feminization which is around 17% in the body of firefighters, all status confuses. This is a message to the women of our country because they can enlist as firefighters, like everyone else. And we need women, Laura (listener of Ma France) made me smile because she said: ‘We don’t have the same strength, but we are thinking’ and I think she summed it all up. “
“Unparalleled human adventures”
If getting involved obviously changes your rhythm of life, it is also a personal enrichment, assures Grégory Allione. “You know, they say that young people don’t get involved, that women don’t get involved. On a daily basis, I can tell you the exact opposite. We have young people who want to help others, who have desire to give meaning to their life because we are in a world of social networks, we are in a world of images. And we have a lot of people who are looking for the “real truth” in the human sense. And the world of firefighting actually makes it possible to offer unparalleled human adventures. Whether it is within the fire station team or in the case of the interventions that we carry out. Because when you have a look that says thank you, when you have a smile that says thank you, that’s the best compensation a firefighter can have.”
Volunteer firefighters, who sometimes represent 100% of a fire station’s workforce depending on the territory, have the same missions as professionals, ranging from personal assistance to firefighting and environmental protection. He carries them out during his free time, except in an emergency, in which case the volunteer firefighter can be called to his place of work and released by his employer. Each volunteer firefighter participates in an average of six interventions per month, with on-call periods planned in advance. It must commit to a minimum period of five years.
- All the information to become a volunteer firefighter can be found here.