Fire fighter profiles

Toni Alexandrow

Position: Leading Aviation Fire Fighter
Location: Melbourne Airport Fire Station
Period of service: 5 years

Working in the past as a volunteer fire fighter, I always knew that I wanted to pursue fire fighting as a full-time career. I also really liked the idea of being an aviation fire fighter, because it’s a specialist area of fire fighting.

Every day is different working as an aviation fire fighter. You know what to expect but you don’t know if or when it’s going to happen. That makes the job exciting. Working as part of a team you feel a sense of shared responsibility with your colleagues.

Matt Anderson

Position: Leading Aviation Fire Fighter
Location: Melbourne Airport Fire Station
Period of service: 4 years

Being an aviation fire fighter is like no other job I’ve done before. The camaraderie, flexible working hours, opportunities to learn on the job and the sense of helping people, all make working as an aviation fire fighter unique.

The job can be tough physically. There’s a lot of training involved so you’re prepared for any event that might happen both mentally and physically. But it’s very rewarding at the same time.

To get to where I am now you need to complete a ten-week training course that’s very intense. You come out of it with a Certificate II in Fire Fighting then consolidate that training at
the station to a Certificate III in Fire Fighting.