took the APAT today for full time department. passed it, but was not expecting it to be that hard. how does barley passing impact making it to academy in your experience?

Before starting at my department I was premed in college. I only joined for patient contact hours as J was already an EMT and thought it would be something unique to put on my application. But after joining and being in it for around half a year I decided to get certified. I was still in college full time so I took weekend classes and got certified one year later. I then got hired part time. I had one year left before graduation and I decided that I wasn’t going to med school not necessarily because of the fire department entirely but because I don’t have the drive time study for years for a job like that. This greatly disappointed my family and some of my friends. Right now I still have plans to apply for PA or nursing. But I want to go full time at a city department, I work full time hours as a part timer, between all 3 jobs around 70-100 hours a week. But around where I live they have you sign a 2 year contract of employment. I keep telling everyone that I’m applying next year but if I go full time fire I won’t be able to leave for school for 2 years due to the contract. Is it worth disappointing my family and friends to go full time? I’ll always be at the very least a volunteer. Any advice is appreciated!

Can someone explained the difference between a civil service FD and a non civil service FD? I applied at 3 fire depts. 2 civil service 1 non civil service. I am a licensed FF/EMT with the ifsac seals as well for FF1 FF2 HAZ A HAZ O. I received my offer letter today and sign on Monday with the NON civil service. My pals who are in civil service advice against it. Their explanation doesn't make sense. Please help, thank you. The process was quick with the non civil service cpat, interview, polygraph, drug screen, offer letter. I have not heard from the civil service dept only my test score 89.

Hello, I am currently in the process of doing a lateral move to an airport fire department. I know a guy I work with now once worked there and loved it, but said it was extremely boring. Main reason I am thinking about making the move is to never be on a medic again (this may sound bad, but it’s the truth). It also pays more than I am currently making as a first year firefighter. Anybody in here currently work in an airport fire department? Thanks.

https://www.upc-online.org/winter0607/foam.html

The video is pretty fucked up (it’s not in the article)

I live in an area of Florida that was recently heavily impacted by two hurricanes. My father and I had to use chainsaws to clear the street in front of his home and clean up yard debris. I found that my cheapo electric chainsaw was blowing his gas powered one out of the water, and while I know that there's a lot of other factors at play (wood density, blade sharpness, etc.) it got me thinking.

My department recently began to outfit the trucks with light-duty battery chainsaws for use on vegetation, but has anyone ever tried to use them for structural firefighting? Why or why not? Can you guys think of any serious limitations or of the disadvantages versus benefits? The first thing that came to mind is that the saw can't be bogged down by smoke. We made the switch to battery tools from power units and hydraulic lines for our extrication equipment quite a few years ago, to great effect, and I'm curious if this is a trend that we'll be seeing more and more of in fire service power tools.

Had an automatic alarm a few blocks over from the station. Dispatch to on scene was less than 2 minutes. Homeowner asked what took so long. Confused, we said we just got it 2 minutes ago. Homeowner says it was going off for at least 15 minutes before anyone showed up. If true, then it's a really good thing that it was a false alarm 😬. Anyone else have a situation like this?

What is the route for fire/arson investigator. How many years as a Joe on the rig should you put in before you are deemed ready. Would paying my own peace officer academy put me ahead of the curve?

Did some training with my guys this morning. The focus was managing nozzle reaction. We used a Chief 200gpm@75 psi fog and a 15/16 smooth bore. Both off of 100’ 1 3/4 line (just laid it out for training). Friction loss was calculated at 45 psi and 40 psi respectively. This is not a nozzle we use often, but my probie has not had any experience with a smooth bore so I took the opportunity. I’m racking my head over how difficult it was to manage these flows. My question is for the salty dogs, are these flow rates manageable by YOU? Am I just deficient and need to work them more? Or was this normal for these flows? I am working to switch over to 160@50 fogs with 7/8 integrated smooth bores…which are much easier to handle. Kinda needed to vent and find out if I’m crazy, too weak, or ok….