More than 3,000 have shown interest in firefighting: Roo

MORE than 3,000 Papua New Guineans applied to be fire fighters in a recruitment exercise, according to PNG Fire Service.
Fire Service Chief Bill Roo said: “There are only some 200 vacancies but we will only be taking in about 60 firemen due to financial constraints.”
He said the applicants had responded to the service’s vacancy advertised in March.
“Once the selection committee has shortlisted and finalised the successful applicants, we will call them in for training next month,” he said.
Roo said the ideal workforce for the Fire Service was 573 but “we now have only 334 firemen nationwide. That means we have vacancies for 239 firemen”.
Roo said their budget for this year was K28.5 million with K14.7 million allocated for salaries, K10 million for development, including rehabilitating fire stations, re-fleeting and replacing old fire trucks and K3.8 million for goods and service.
“The operational funds are limited. So, fire officers are urged to sell their non-responsive services to business houses, non-government organisations, stakeholders and individuals to supplement internal expenses,” he said.
“Non-responsive services include evacuation drills, local action plans and fire safety training and external advice to building owners and others.
“Fire services is becoming a noble requirement in developing nations like PNG and we need strong and energetic firemen to uplift its functions and operations.”