Ventnor Fire Station: JH78
About us
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight organisation is one of the busiest fire and rescue services in the UK, serving a population of nearly two million people. The Service’s Chief Fire Officer is Neil Odin, and Shantha Dickinson is the Deputy Chief Fire Officer.
We provide many critical services, such as our award-winning Arson Task Force, medical co-responders in partnership with South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), and since 1988 we have been sending volunteers to overseas disasters as part of the UK International Search and Rescue (UKISAR).
How we work
We employ 2,000 people, 85% of these are firefighters, with the remaining 15% made up by support staff.
Our organisation structure consists of the following roles:
- Operational staff
- Control staff
- Essential support staff
- Along with our community volunteers.
Operational staff
Our operational staff are made up of a combination of full time, part-time and on-call firefighters; who work for the Service in addition to their main employment. To provide our communities with round-the-clock services.
Control staff
When you dial 999 and ask for the fire service it is a member of fire control team that you will speak to. Control deal with a huge variety of calls, dealing with hundreds of 100 different types of incidents. Without the skills and professional judgement of the highly trained members of Control, our firefighters could not operate as effectively as they do 24 hours per day, 365 days a year.
Support staff
Every day we’re helping to save lives – and not only by fighting fires. Behind the scenes there are lots of other roles that people don’t see: incident support teams, administration teams, technical engineers and more.
Volunteers
Our volunteers are based throughout Hampshire and the Isle of Wight supporting our teams with their everyday duties providing safety advice to our communities. Want to join our team? See here for details.