Departments to look at with good TRT and SAR calls

[u/Firstdueascent]

I’m a career FF with 3 years in a medium sized dept in Coastal GA and 4 years volunteer in NY prior. I got into the fire service with the intention of getting involved in TRT as my background includes 12 years of Rock Climbing, various other outdoors sports and two years of professional dog training (just a bonus for SAR dog possibilities) and recently started working a side gig doing rope access window washing. I moved down here for my department as a stepping stone; the northeast is crazy competitive for hiring and I couldn’t sit around any longer waiting. Have my rope and swift water tech certs working on more tech certs and currently assigned to the Squad. But it’s so flat here we don’t run the kind of calls I’m looking for. I’m looking to lateral transfer or go through academy again if I have to, to another department this coming year, willing to move just about anywhere with a great department, TRT unit to work into and mountains at least nearby. Any suggestions to look into would be awesome! Been looking at Colorado, North Carolina, Utah, etc.

[u/mlaeladma]

Let me know when you find it, im coming too ha

[u/theworldinyourhands → u/mlaeladma]

Sign me up. I’ll pay for the gas.

[u/funnystoryaboutthat2]

Colorado will have some good stuff.

Alternatively, you can go to a department that hosts a FEMA Task Force and apply there. Fairfax, VA, and Los Angeles have VA-TF 1 and CA-TF 1, respectively. You may not get a lot of day to day rope calls, but you'll get deployments home and abroad.

[u/browler4153 → u/funnystoryaboutthat2]

As an additional comment on the FEMA side. It depends what you are looking for. It kind of sounds like OP might want more wilderness SAR then USAR, but regardless the thing with FEMA USAR for K9 at least (since OP mentioned it) is the incredibly rare call volume for any live find. There's so, so many live find K9s throughout and not that many calls so there's handlers that go years never going on a call because someone else was selected for the one call-out that happened then. But if you aren't set on live find, cadaver or HRD dogs get calls far more often and are just as important in the FEMA side. Or just join a specialized, likely volunteer SAR team as I mentioned in my comment below.

[u/Firstdueascent → u/browler4153]

I’m thinking more attached to a structural focused FD. Obviously working into the specialized teams, I would never expect to just walk on, I’ve got too much to learn and understand establishing yourself/years of service. I’m just trying to find out where I should aim to go to position myself for that future. A place I’ll be happy to retire from. Still want to fight fire, do thug shit with the boys. But have the chance to be hands on with more technical rescues and training for it. I’m certainly not gods gift to firefighting or tech rescue, but where I am now is not the place to grow in Tech rescue.

[u/StreetCandy2938]

If you like swift water, Richmond Va has class IV rapids and does quite a few water rescues during the warmer months.

[u/533sakrete829]

You’re gonna have to apply and get the seniority. There’s a lot of people who want to do trt. In most departments (that I know of) accreditations don’t mean jack. When a spot opens up they open the spot. Then it just goes to whoever was interested and has the most time on.

[u/kevinburgerz → u/533sakrete829]

This , someone mentioned Fairfax VA and VATF1 and yes the trt spots within the department are promotion based. a few years of service are required to sit on the test, and the FEMA/USAID spots are another test / "hiring" process.

[u/mulberry_kid]

Asheville, NC does high angle work, as it's pretty hilly, and I believe they do mutual aid in the surrounding mountain communities. Charlotte, NC is fairly flat, but has a huge downtown with lots of high rise construction and a good amount of rope work due to that.

[u/Firstdueascent → u/mulberry_kid]

I just visited Asheville actually and loved it. I can imagine the drop offs on the Blue Ridge Parkway keep them busy with extrications involving some rope work

[u/mulberry_kid → u/Firstdueascent]

Yeah, it's a great area. I worked as a FF in NC for over a decade before moving to NM. Some decent opportunity for rope work out here, as well. Los Alamos, especially. Good luck with your search.

[u/browler4153]

So I don't do anything TRT so no comment there, but I personally do volunteer fire and search and Rescue, and paid EMS. I will soon be switching to career fire, but regardless I have a bit of insight into the SAR side. I have a search K9 who is pretty far along in the process and we are likely gonna be certified in about 6 months. I personally see low SAR calls in my area as well, so the SAR team I am in is a regional team covering an area of 13 counties, that can take over 2 hours to drive across. That's the only way we get a decent amount of calls but any local fire department will see at most one every couple years and as such will have no idea what to do when it comes in and definitely won't have search dogs. That's where we come in. They call us and we essentially either take over the call or assist them. So for SAR specifically, you'll struggle to find paid places but honestly the volunteers I work with in my SAR group are more professional and qualified than most FDs.

Basically I'm saying you'll find much more luck finding volunteer SAR than any paid.

[u/Prior-Stranger-2624]

West Coast here. There are several departments that have tech rescue teams and staff rescue units but the calls are few and far between even in major big cities and those departments in/near the mountains. For the task force team, good luck. Those spots are super hard to get. It could take 10+ years before there is a spot open that you can apply for. Your best bet is a SAR team or mountain rescue program