The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) was established 157 years ago in 1862 and is one of the oldest legislated fire services in the world.
Boosting workforce diversity is the focus of the MFS’s latest full-time firefighter recruitment campaign - Challenge Your Potential, which urges people to challenge what they can achieve in their career – and look to become a firefighter.
The campaign is about opening the minds of people who may never have considered firefighting and letting them know it’s a career option for them.
The MFS first announced a diversity push 3 ½ years ago and is already seeing signs that stereotypes are falling away. It now has 35 % more female firefighters – and a jump in culturally diverse personnel.
The MFS is challenging historical stereotypes of who is, can and should be a firefighter.
On this week’s Our State episode MFS Assistant Chief Fire Officer of Metropolitan Operations, Peter Button and Senior Firefighters Dylan Faber and Cecilia Low talk about the new campaign and what it means to be a firefighter.