r/Firefighting

I'm not a firefighter but I'm hoping to become one. I want to know what's the average stuff a firefighter would see while on the job. Is it mostly EMT stuff or more fire stuff? Also how many false calls are there?

Yes our department is cheap. We don't have compressors and have to go to neighboring stations to fill out water extinguishers after we used them. We have a redneck way to refill it using a SCBA but we're trying to make it safer and easier (and we're technically not allowed to do it) we used the G1 with the quick connect adapter. I'm looking to fit it with a valve+bleed valve and a short hose to refill the extinguishers. Can't seem to find the proper adapter for the quick connect and they don't want us to remove it

I recently moved from Kansas to south Texas. I have my fire 1, 2, and both hazmat certificates but zero medical. I’m trying to get on at a full time fire department here in Texas, but most if not all require that you have at least EMT B or be NREMT certified. In the long run is it better to go with a private course or enroll at a local college?

I am 22m and have been looking into a career in firefighting and just curious about others experiences.

I currently live in Florida and don’t have any plans of moving out of state any time soon or at all really, so I’m curious what a career is like for those who work in Florida. My grandfather was a firefighter in Massachusetts and he enjoyed it, while also having a great career making it all the way up to chief which is one reason why I’m considering it since he always spoke so highly of his time working. I’m also curious about the physical part of being a firefighter since I know the gear can be very heavy and I’m not out of shape but I am short (5’6) so I’m not sure if that will be an issue. Another thing is I also just don’t want a boring job where I’m stuck behind a desk for the rest of my life, I feel like firefighting while it can definitely be challenging can also be a fulfilling career.

Any advice or even just stories of your own will be nice to hear about. :)

What does your assessment centers entail at your department when you promote to LT or Captain?

I'm posting this here in hopes someone can help me. r/EMS automod removed it as a violation of asking about "how to become an EMT", but I'm looking for information on license reciprocity with the background check process. This is technically an EMS question but i am applying to a local fire department.

I'm looking to apply for a department in Pennsylvania, i have been a Maryland/NREMT and DC cardholder for the last 6 years.

I got a background check done in PA, but the PA website says i also need a "official" background check for states I've practiced in, and that "third party checks are not accepted".

This means i need a BG check from Maryland, DC and technically Virginia, as i held a license there as an employment requirement years ago, but never used it.

My main question is, where should i go for these BG checks? Can i go to a gun store and get a check done that way or do i need to try state police or some other avenue?

What do you think boys? Our department has individual rooms with a locker for each person. I have noticed some shuffling around and a couple items missing from my locker. I absolutely know they were there. So I started photographing the contents and location before. Leaving shift in the morning. One time a can of deodorant was missing. Another time my towel. I also noticed the placement of my deodorant can was moved. So….i stealthily placed a so-go camera in the locker and lo and behold I have video of the guy who shares the room on his shift opening my locker and using my spray deodorant. So guys, how do I handle this? I thought about gift wrapping up a can with his name on it.

So my department is looking at quite a few things. One is going from the 48/96, to the 24/72. Two things that came up was how our pay works, and how we should do trades. Currently our trade windows are very short and extremely strick. My questions are if anyone works for or knows of departments that do level pay. By this, I mean, that the pay is the same every paycheck (like a salary), and the only thing that changes is overtime. Most jobs ive worked call salary plus overtime. Now, at the same time, we are looking to expand the trade window to anytime in the same calendar year. Currently the person that was originally scheduled on that shift gets penalized if the other person calls in sick. At that point the person that originally schedule either needs to work that day, or take a sick day. I, personally, think that the base salary would take that out of the equation. The person that was supposed to work the day, that called out, would take the sick day penalty, since they are now the scheduled worker and are not showing up. This seems like the fair way to do things.

So my chief put me in charge of seeing if I could find any departments that do either i or both of these, and gather information. I would love the department names/locations, so I can reach out for additional information. You are more then welcome to private message me the info as well.

Thank you so much!

I’ve been around the guys on my department for my whole life, but we’ve never really had any women on our department so it’s hard to get advice. I recently just joined and need some advice from ladies who have been on longer, stuff like the best workout routines, better ways to do things, etc! Anything would be helpful!

I am going in for testing/ orientation at my local fire department. All they said to bring was 2 #2 pencils. What should I wear and what should I expect?

Odered a pair of the Leatherman raptor rescue shears, just curious how they're holding up for anyone else using them ? Are they actually better and stronger then standard shears ? Mine havent arrived yet but im excited to give them a go.

Question for fire radio geek types. I'm a retired wildland firefighter, live in rural California, and this morning around 5am I slept through a small veg fire near me, which has me concerned, as expected. I have the Watch Duty app but they often don't send an alert for initial attack or when their scanner jockies are asleep, like this morning.

The modified response was our local small combo department, an engine from a neighboring department, and the local Cal Fire (state) station.

What I'm looking for is some type of computer based receiver (Raspberry Pi?) that would act like a tone activated pager but would only activate when the tones for both departments and the state station go off in the same dispatch. A regular receiver wouldn't work as I don't want to be woken up for every stubbed toe call! 🤣

Any ideas where I could either find something like this or someone that could guide me?

Also, how do I find out the tones I want for this?

Lets say there is a person swimming in the lake, they swim out 45 feet to a place where it’s 20 ft deep, they drown for some reason, and water enters there lungs, wouldn’t they just sink to the bottom way before divers arrive? And even if they can get pulled out of the water, I’m guessing they can’t be revived.

how exactly do water rescues works? What are your departments policies on water rescues?

Hey everyone! I’m visiting San Francisco for the day driving through on a roadtrip and won’t be able to check into our Airbnb until later this evening. I’m a ff up in Washington State, and I was wondering if any SF guys would be willing to let me park at their station for a few hours. I’ve got a lot of expensive gear in my rig and would prefer to keep it. Thanks in advance.

This story follows how Local 4576 from North Carolina got annual cancer screenings in the county budget and non-PFAS gear paid by the county.

As the title says I’m royally considering my worth as firefighter. I’m a new probationary firefighter with 7 months and some change into the career. Keeping in mind I’m still new I’ve done pretty well with a good attitude and ready to train and ready to step up when it’s needed. But here lately I’ve had a run of bad luck. I only have two things left in my probationary book to do before I’m off probation and that’s vehicle extrication and ventilation. I’ve had a few calls that make you second guess yourself and keep you up at night at times and a busy life outside of the station. Vertical ventilation has been tough for me because there is always something I screw up or I don’t do it the way someone wants me to do it and it really frustrates me because I want to be better but never seem to get better at it. My issue is heights and the pitch of the roof didn’t make me feel confident in completing the cut but I did my best. I still didn’t get it signed off because I didn’t come off the ladder enough and I accidentally dropped my pike pole through the roof and to the ground floor. Which I will admit was a mistake on my part but atleast it wasn’t the head of it going through the ceiling. I can see the safety concern there. But ultimately I’ve noticed I’m not good at a lot of things, i have things that I feel I did well with my dumb luck. Here a while back I pumped my first house fire and did pretty well at that. But for me the biggest slap in my face personally and although the firefighter who said this meant well was that I was really good at emt skills and medical calls. And it’s cool and all that someone said that but that’s not what I want to be good at. I want to be the firefighter people ask to do stuff like go do search, vehicle extrication, or fire attack or hell even vent. Instead I’m a Probationary Firefighter with limits that I feel hurts my crew and that sucks.