Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt will be interviewing recent applicants this week in hopes of increasing the department's number of available firefighters.
Wyatt said on Aug. 11 he had more than 10 people who had expressed interest in joining the department.
He said he would love to have 10 new recruits join the department and hoped to have a minimum of 15 people apply for the positions.
"I, basically, gave myself about three weeks of advertising the positions, going around and talking to people and that sort of thing," said Wyatt.
"I haven't decided the exact dates yet, but we'll do interviews on two or three days throughout the week. After that, we'll do the physicals the following week and then develop two training weekends, so that instead of just sending them to practice for two hours a week, I want to put all the new recruits and a few of the other new people in the department through a 32-hour course that we develop on defensive firefighting, medical and all the basics."
The Rankin Inlet Fire Department currently has 16 firefighters on its roster.
Of that number, said Wyatt, only 10 or 11 are actually active as firefighters and that's simply not enough.
"When it comes to the actual interviews, it's all about attitude mostly," he said. "Everything else we can train them for, but people have to have a good attitude. They have to want to be able to help the community. They have to be reasonably physically fit because it is a very strenuous type of thing that we do. They also have to have a willingness to learn.
"We can teach, pretty much, everything else. There's still openings if people want to apply. Come in and pick up an application. I would be very interested in anyone who wants to be a part of this department at this point, between the ages of 18 and 60-ish."
