NEW recruits are urgently needed to man fire stations around the county, a station manager has said.

Stuart Tucker, who works from Wimborne Fire Station, is leading calls to bring new on-call fire fighters on board.

Men and women over the age of 18 and living within four miles of their local fire station are urged to get in touch with Dorset Fire and Rescue to help save lives.

Mr Tucker, who works as an aerospace engineer during the day, said: “Our retained fire fighters come from all walks of life.

“They all have jobs of their own, but they take the time to train with us, and they are on-call for emergencies. At this station, we have a paramedic, a builder, a car mechanic, a Corgi-registered boiler engineer.

“It’s great to know that you’re working with such a wide range of people who all have something different to add.”

Currently, recruits are desperately needed in rural towns and villages.

“No one is discriminated against,” said Mr Tucker.

“Everyone brings along an extra set of skills that we didn’t have before, which is wonderful. There is no upper age limit.”

Rural fire stations take between 60 and 500 calls on average each year.

Mr Tucker said: “Here at Wimborne, we cover some really diverse incidents.

“It might be that we get called to the conurbation, or we could be somewhere really rural.

“You never know what’s going to happen as part of the job.”

Any potential recruits are invited to attend their local fire station during a training night, or visit dorsetfire.gov.uk for information.

n Recruiting stations: Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, Shaftesbury, Blandford, Wareham, Swanage, Hamworthy, Wimborne, Cranborne and Ferndown