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How can I become a firefighter. Do I need college? Should I start as volunteer? I would like this or EMT a lot

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I wanna be a fire fighter, or maybe an EMT. How can I do it. I now EMT's need some college and heard firefighters need some too. What does it take, just a degree or what, should I start as a volunteer and if so how to do that? I'm somehwat fit and could get better, I can do 50 burpees in 2:31. I know I'll nedd a lot more than that though. SO I can get fit fo duty, but what about college, I ma not stupid and I think I could learn the ropes pretty well. Also ,are firefighters always on call? Do I need to study firescience? WHat are some tests of endurance firefighters must go through? Is the lung cancer rate high for firefighters?Thanks for any help you may give in advance.

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  1. it all depends on where you live...

    i am a volunteer firefighter, which did not require school, but they will send you to classes needed, which will also go towards being a paid firefighter.. to be a paid ff, you have to go through acadamy... volunteers go when they can, paid ff work 24 on and 48 off... and if its really bad they do get called in..

    haveing an emt license will help to get on a fire dept.. some fd's require it.. especially in the bigger cities..

    if you are still in school, talk to your councilers about what classes you need to take.. when i was in school, there wasnt anything called firescience... but that was years ago...

    when i joined my volunteer dept, they had me do an agility test like the paid depts do..  i had to be in full gear (weighs about 97 lbs) pick up a 50ft rolled hose, and carry it throughout the course.. here is how it went: pick up hose, walk to charged line, put down hose, pick up charged line, knock over cone, put down charged line, pick up hose, go to ladder, put down hose, climb ladder to top of semi trailer, climb down, pick up hose, go to log, put down hose, hit log 10 times with sledge hammer, pick up hose, go back in building, put hose down, drag 200 lb dummy in circle... finsihed... i did this in less than 4 minutes and i thought i was going to DIE!!!

    the best thing for you to do, is go to your local fire dept and talk to them... if you live in an area where they have volunteers see about becoming one, most places will let 16 and up join, although they cannot go in house fires, but can do other things... if your school has an explorer program, join it... good luck!!!


  2. Of course you should volunteer! That's always a good start to get the feel of the job. A lot will depend on the state you're in as too how you will go about getting your training. Your best bet is to talk to the guys down at your local FD. They can tell you the path to follow to get hired on.

    In most states, you attend the fire academy for up to 6 months. After you graduate, you'll take your EMT classes which last for 3 months. Then you're eligible to be hired on at an FD.

    Other places they will hire you out of an applicant pool and send you through their academy and EMT school and place you in one of their stations.

    Reserve your Fire Science classes for after you get hired. The classes will make more sense to you after you've spent a little time on the job.

    With the advancement of our gear and equipment, firefighters dying of lung cancer is all but gone. The only ones that typically die of lung cancer are ones that smoke. Most FFs die of heart attacks due to poor diet and physical conditioning.

    As far as CPATs go, they vary from department to department. Some of the test include: 150' hose pull, multi-story stair climb, forcible entry sled, mile and half run, calisthenics, 175 lb. dummy drag, various fire ground tasks such s tying knots, coupling hoses, etc.

    Hope this helps. Best of luck to you!

  3. My Older brother started out as a volunteer and now he the "fire chief"! but you should go to college just incase somthing goes wrong like you don't like t or somthing like that.

  4. Most firefighters are EMTs/ this usually goes with the whole trainning program. 1st EMT training and then the firefighter school. Thats the way my Uncle did it. He also did advance work in rescue diving. Lung cancer rates really vary from place to place. Good Luck.

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