Information for employers about on-call firefighting

Can your business help support Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service?

Daytime (9am – 5pm) is the most difficult time for us to find on-call firefighters and we’re grateful for our partnerships with local businesses that help us at this time.

If your business is based within five minutes of a fire station, could you give permission for staff to be on-call firefighters? On average on-call firefighter are called out two to three times per week for an hour at a time (not always during working hours).

To find out more about your staff becoming on-call firefighters please contact us with any questions you have.

Working the next day

It is very rare for a firefighter to attend an emergency for more than a few hours and not be able to work the next day. Extended periods of physical work increase the likelihood of accidents, and incidents will have firefighters rotated to respond.

Injuries and training

We give extremely comprehensive training and injuries are rare. However, if your employee was injured while attending an incident, we do have compensation policies in place for loss of earnings for your employee. Your employee will receive the same training as wholetime firefighters, but they are not permanently based at a fire station. Instead they spend a set number of hours each week ‘on-call’, where they carry a pager and respond to incidents when alerted.

Benefits for employers

Many businesses find on-call firefighters help them build a positive reputation as responsible employer that cares about their local community and encourages workers to fulfil their ambitions. Other benefits include:

  • Your employee will be trained in essential skills for the workplace including fire safety, first aid and risk assessments.
  • They will develop valuable personal skills such as quick thinking and decision making, using their initiative, working calmly under pressure, effective communication and taking responsibility.

Making adjustments

You would need to be prepared for your employee to occasionally leave work when alerted to an incident and then return once the incident has been dealt with. There would be no advanced warning of them leaving and we would need them to arrive at the fire station within five minutes. We are mindful that you are the primary employer and any time spent on-call during working hours is flexible around your business needs. For example, if their availability for your business is essential all day Mondays and Thursdays, your employee would mark themselves as unavailable for on-call duty on these days.