Jazz Packer (left) and Fraser Jackson are both new recruits from the Bay. Photo / Stephen Parker
Jazz Packer (left) and Fraser Jackson are both new recruits from the Bay. Photo / Stephen Parker
Rotorua local Jazz Packer had never lifted a weight in her life before training to become a firefighter.
Now after a 12-week firefighter training course, Packer is ready to hit the ground running as Taupō Fire Station's first female career firefighter.
She will join 20 other recruits, only three ofwhich were females, who graduated yesterday from the Fire and Emergency NZ course at the National Training Centre in Rotorua.
Packer chose to become a firefighter for her 2-year-old daughter.
She said she wanted to be a positive role model to her and other girls in the community to prove that women can do anything they set their mind too.
The hard work paid off and out of about 650 applicants for the course, Packer was selected.
Recruits train with a fake crash scene at the Fire and Emergency NZ National Training Centre in 2014. Photo / File
Packer said she could not have done it without the support of her Okere Falls community that was "full of firefighters" and her husband who was part of the Rotorua station.
More women in the force was something Fire and Emergency NZ was actively trying to address.
National recruitment manager Rochelle Martin said Fire and Emergency NZ were seeing a "slow creep" of interest from women who wanted to enter the force.
She said females currently made up 5 per cent of the career staff and they were working hard to raise this number.
Stations were currently making the shift to be more accommodating to women and recruitment campaigns targeting women were in full force, she said.
Career recruit trainer Dane O'Brien said he was excited and nervous for the new trainees because he knew what they were going into.
"It's the beauty of the job, these guys could get on the truck on their first day of work and go on the biggest job of their lives.
"People [who] have their worst day need us to be having their best day," O'Brien said.
Whangarei's Katrina Hall was also among the graduates. Photo / Stephen Parker
He said the course had prepared the recruits for their first day in the crew and how to keep safe, but all the learning comes on the job.
Whakatāne man Fraser Jackson was another graduate on the day and was going to be based in the Kawerau Fire Station.
The 20-year-old said he loved the smaller communities and was passionate about helping people.
He laughed as he said he had learned how to "iron really well" on the course after doing it every day.
During the ceremony, the 21 graduating recruits performed a number of simulated exercises including a motor vehicle accident extraction and a fire in a high-rise building.
New recruits were each assigned to one of 66 career fire stations around New Zealand.
The next lot of training recruits will arrive in Rotorua on Saturday.
In the 2017/18 financial year, about 22,000 people attended training courses run by Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
