AN OPEN evening will be held in North Yorkshire to encourage people to sign up as on-call firefighters.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service will host the event at their training centre in Easingwold on Saturday, March 4, between 10am and 2pm, with local team members on hand to share information and answer questions from the public.

The service is currently recruiting on call members, who are trained to the same standard as full time recruits, undertake one night’s training a week, and are paid for their time, and are alerted to emergencies by pager.

Retained crews already operate in Acomb, Bedale, Easingwold, Huntington, Knaresborough, Malton, Northallerton, Selby, Settle, Sherburn, Tadcaster, Thirsk and more rural areas.

A spokeswoman for the fire service said anyone interested must be over 18, in good health and relatively fit, and available to report to their local fire service within four minutes of an alarm being raised, although the service said some leeway is available on this.

To find out more, visit northyorksfire.gov.uk or phone 01609 780150.