Kane Ridley

I am very committed to continuing my work with NSW Fire and Rescue and continuing my career progression through promotion. I have been a contributing member within diverse and motivated stations. Starting my FRNSW career in 2012 as an on-call FF and 2015 recruited to on shift FF. My commitment to the organisation, crew and community can be evident in a 90% call out response rate and 100% of on call drill attendance. While always up skilling when duration and rank allow, this has continued throughout my on-shift career to my current position as senior fire fighter. I have been a respected and committed member of all stations with which I am attached while pursuing exposure and diversity throughout multiple stations in the GSA and regional areas. The variety and exposure sort has required me to act in greater levels of responsibility for example IC, sector commander and operational support to name a few as well as allowing me to impart lessons learnt to colleges by cross pollination of knowledge gained through the varied ways and demographics, we operate in. I have over 24 years of professional experience outside of fire and rescue in construction as a tradesperson and open building license holder. Throughout these 24 years in construction many parallels with FRNSW have been apparent. For example, leadership, HR management, budget management, delegation, staging, communication, safety management, procurement, reporting and training. The ultimate attributes I’ve gained in construction applicable to the advertised position is leadership and responsibility. The skills I obtained in construction were applicable to general firefighting, primary rescue and aerial appliance I thusly believe the knowledge and leadership gained in construction combined with 12-year experience in FRNSW will also be highly beneficial if promoted to Station officer. An example of my previous career directly benefiting FRNSW operations is being an advisory in structure related incident such as car into building while attending on the heavy rescue and structure fires. I have pursued training and skills via external organisations to directly enhance my depth of knowledge in emergency situations, such as training with Brunswick VRA in swift water rescue many years before it was broadly rolled out within FRNSW. As well as continued training with a previous employer (Australian Antarctic Division) in expedition leadership and medical training.

• FRNSW: Senior Fire fighter program
• FRNSW: General land rescue
• FRNSW: Aerial appliance
• VRA: Swift water technician
• VRA: Swift water responder
• Uni of TAS: Expedition medic
• Various:

• Acting with integrity and self-management – Being professional, ethical and promoting the public sector values is a central to my character both in and outside of FRNSW. Supporting and encouraging others to this standard is also my motivation. I understand the ultimate outcome of the public sector framework to support through maintaining knowledge and understanding of policy and legislation to prevent misconduct, illegal behaviour, inappropriate behaviour. While always looking to develop skills, strengths, achieving goals, reflecting on performances, guidance and maintain a high level of motivation.
• Effective communication and working collaboratively – Throughout my career with FRNSW and the construction industry effective communication is critical to achieving objectives and focused outcomes. Allowing respectful two-way communication, using multiple mediums and models understood by parties and delivery of critical information. All areas of my professional career have required me to work collaboratively and I have a strong understanding of the effectiveness when achieving goals whether it be working with other crews, on shift-on call collaboration, other emergency services or trades to achieve an outcome.
• Accountability – I believe I have strong accountability within my professional approach through motivation, preparedness and involvement. Developed through career progression and responsibility requirements. I self-reflect and hold myself to the expected professional level and expectations of myself.
• Financial – As a FRNSW employee I have managed financial impact by minimising pointless waste of resources at incident and station level. Throughout my construction management career, the big three critical factors are time, quality and cost. Resource application, strategy, contract management, procurement and balancing other critical factors are imperative to successful outcomes. This is a skill I can directly bring to FRNSW.
• Managing and developing people – My career path has shaped my expectations of myself and those I work with. Investing time into junior members and skills maintenance is essential. I have been fortunate to be an on-call fire fighter and also stationed at 001 station, both of which by nature have a high turnover of crews. Assisting and guiding other crew members is part of combating high turnover of personnel and maintaining a standard. I am currently working in a combined on-call and on shift station with a good relationship where we assist in skill development of on call fire fighters. Likewise, within my construction career I have trained 8 apprentice carpenters who of which have worked on and off with me for 15 years.