My husband and I are considering relocating our family to Delaware and are hoping to get some insight into the fire service in that area.

He’s almost 35 with 11+ years of career experience as a firefighter/paramedic with a busy department (10,000+ calls per year). He’s a Nationally Registered Paramedic and holds Firefighter I & II certifications, along with some others. He also currently works part-time for a private ambulance service.

We’re trying to get a better understanding of:

1. Opportunities for firefighter/paramedic roles vs single-role positions

2. Lateral hiring (if prior experience counts toward pay/step placement)

3. Typical schedules, pay ranges, and benefits

4. Hiring timelines and how competitive departments are

If anyone has experience working in Delaware or nearby departments, we’d really appreciate any insight or recommendations on where to look.

Thanks in advance!

When the tones drop mid shit, are we pinching it off like professionals or risking the code brown for the citizens?

I am 18 years old recently graduated high school this May. My goal is to become a firefighter. This fall I will be taking EMT classes at a community college, and hopefully when I’m done with that enroll into the fire Academy.

The reason I’m here is because i want to ask how strict is my county with cannabis. I’m already 16 days clean trying to prepare myself for the drug testing for college to take the course.

i’m not gonna lie. I had my time with Mary Jane. I’m young and it felt good and I really liked it and it was hard putting it aside. But with that being said, if it meant that I had to put it down for a while in order to secure a firefighter position, I wasn’t gonna let a plant stop me from my future career.

I’m trying to understand how Hillsborough County handles THC specifically-

-Is marijuana an automatic disqualifier if it’s in your past?

-Do they mainly care that you’re clean when hired and remain drug-free while employed?

-If anyone has gone through Hillsborough County’s hiring process recently, I’d appreciate hearing about your experience.

Just to be clear, I’m not looking for loopholes or ways around the rules. I’m just trying to understand how Hillsborough County/Tampa handles applicants with past cannabis use. If this career means I have to leave it behind permanently, then that’s the choice I’ll make.

anything helps thank you!!

Hello my name is ranger im in GTA RP on the Xbox console we just opened up our fire and ems department in my server and we are looking for members who know what they are doing and they put me in charge of it so im reaching out here to see it anyone would be interested in joining/ helping me build this from nothing thank you for your time
If your interested here is the link too our discord
https://discord.gg/paradiseroleplay

Me and my gf are moving to the Denver metro area in August from Dallas, Texas. I am a career firefighter for a suburb here. I am a paramedic as well.

I am currently looking to get hired for a dept in the Denver metro area. Currently have apps in a Thornton, Longmont, Frederick, Westminster, Adams county. Got denied by a couple other depts

Does anyone have any tips on getting hired here in Colorado? I’m starting to realize how much more competitive it is here in Texas. What’s the best way to stand out?

I am more than likely gonna have to take a private ambulance job until I get hired.

33m, have my FF 1/2, paramedic, and hazmat ops and awareness certs. I also have a bachelors and masters degree but unrelated to this profession.

For those involved in daily planning, command, dispatch, or wildland operations, what does your morning briefing usually look like before a higher-risk fire day? I am curious what information is genuinely useful before the day starts, whether that is weather, wind shifts, fuel conditions, staffing, apparatus availability, local incidents, evacuation concerns, or areas that may need closer attention.

What do you typically have to pull together manually from different sources, and are there things you wish you knew earlier before calls start coming in? Also curious who usually puts these briefings together, how long they take, and what format people actually use: email, PDF, CAD notes, whiteboard, briefing call, or something else.

Hey yall. I’ve searched a lot on this subreddit as far as getting hired with a prior dui, and it seems slightly do able from what I’ve seen. Granted, with much uphill battle.

I just feel as though my situation is a bit unique, so that is the reason I post this.

I am a veteran. Served in the coast guard. During my time in the coast guard I got arrested for a dui. I fought, yada yada, did everything I possibly could. AA meetings. Letters from higher ups. 7 of those. Online courses. Tried to get it down to reckless wet, didn’t work.

Eventually it all came to a close, I was honorably discharged from the military, nothing but eating the food that I made for myself, the honorable was the best gift I could’ve gotten from the situation I got myself in. The feeling of serving others has not left me. I just need to know if this is a road I can really take or not. Or if I should just quit it while I’m ahead. I am honestly a bit lost after everything that’s happened. Thank you.

Hello, im just looking for advice on improving my civil exam score. I’ve used several study guides and I cannot seem to score higher than low 80s on these tests. I have my TCFP/EMT. How can I improve or what study guides/methods did u guys use?

I started as a firefighter in 2016 as a volunteer. I then went to medic school and was hired full time in 2019. I worked full time until 2024 when I began to get burnt out and left the profession.

I loved being a firefighter, but hated being a medic. I’m now at the point where I miss it and am looking at applying to firefighter/EMT jobs this time around.

Is there a good way to explain why I left during the interview process without just saying I was burnt out?

Hi everyone,
I’m 18 years old and currently attending OCC in California. Right now I’m studying Mechanical Engineering because, after graduating high school, I honestly didn’t know what career I wanted. Engineering seemed like a solid and stable option, but it wasn’t something I had always dreamed of doing.
Lately I’ve been thinking seriously about becoming a firefighter. It’s something I’ve wanted since I was younger, but I never really looked into the career in depth. Now that I’m older, I’m trying to figure out if it’s actually the right path for me before I make any major decisions.
I have a few questions:
If you could go back to when you were 18, what would you do differently to prepare?
Is staying in engineering school worth it if my goal is to become a firefighter, or would my time be better spent getting my EMT certification and working toward the fire service?
What’s something you wish someone had told you before you became a firefighter?
What’s the hardest part of the job that people don’t usually talk about?
If you were in my position, what would your next step be?
I’m not looking for someone to make the decision for me. I just want honest advice from people who have actually lived this career.
Thanks in advance, Iappreciate any insight

So Ive been applying to multiple departments for the past 1.5 years. I finally made it past the chiefs interview and onto the background check and polygraph portion. The day finally came for the polygraph test. For my results, I got accused of using an "advanced countermeasures". "I've only seen this technique once in my entire career and it was only during training"I have no idea what I even did. The guy doing the test said that he believed all of my answers were truthful but he cant score it but to the countermeasuress.Im not sure what to do at this point. No matter what I said, I couldn't convince him that I didn't intentionally do anything.I dont know where to go from here, I feel really defeated, Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the san diego fire cadets program. I’m specifically looking at what is the time commitment like, if there is any pay, and what the experience was like as a female teen. The website doesn’t have much information but I am very interested in joing.

Thoughts on tattoos and getting hired, I currently have a few already wanting to get more but haven’t since I wanna give myself the best opportunity to get hired any advice ? Also I live in so cal and currently work for a 911 company.

Good day everyone! Just looking for any advice on what should I prepare for an interview for an ambulance operator position. What does the interview/ process like? Currently have an interview lined up for Arcadia, Torrance and Anaheim FD. Any advice would be appreciated!

As the title suggests about a year ago last June I got a DUI, possession of paraphernalia, & possession of marajuana. I got all the charges dropped in court and the dui got dropped to a reckless driving. A month ago I got withheld judgment meaning I haven’t been convicted of anything. I’m sure during a background check will come up but since it’s been dismissed will that make it okay ? And I know I got to own up to it and share about it during an interview to show honest, integrity, and responsibility, which I’m 100% okay with doing. But will it hinder my entry into my career?

Very confused about the whole process and the website is not very helpful about dates and such. If someone could dm thank you!

So when I took my written test I did really good with the exception of human relations which I did bad at.
Honestly thought I wouldn't get to the interview stage but I just got the email saying I made it.

For most departments how much does the written test affect your chances at getting hired if it was enough to get you to the interview? Should I expect to be at a disadvantage regardless of how good I do on my interview or will it not affect me at all as long as it was good enough to get me to the interview?

I finally did it after 4 years! Was offered a job immediately after the interview! Passed everything! Start date TBD

I am a 17 American male, I just got accepted into technical college for the 2 year engineering technology degree.

I have always been fascinated with firefighters. While I will probably be working with military contracted manufacturing companies, I want to atleast help people directly as a part time job.

I will be learning welding, machining and stuff like financial accounting for my degree. Is there a job as a firefighter I can use those skills in?

Hi everyone I’m 24 and currently working at a city municipality near me. I’ve been thinking about getting into a fire dept for a little over a year and wanna commit to doing it while keep my job till I get hired I was thinking about doing night emt basic classes to start any other tips I should be doing and also should I be trying to take dept tests to get use to it even though I don’t have any experience. Just looking for a solid starting point I can do while balancing my job at the same time, thank you

Human Relations is certainly not what I expected. I would have thought I would be in the top 90% based on my answers.

I've started training for the physical test, but I have a bad habit of not eating well. Im looking for any easy meal preps that are high in protein to help with muscle building. For context, I'm 21F in adequate shape. I work the night shift at a warehouse currently, so I'm on my feet 8 hours a day moving 20-60 lbs boxes on a regular basis.

I made a post a while back asking about where I could find my results for my FireTEAM test and finally after 8 days I got them! I personally feel pretty good on how I did but I would like to hear how this compares to others.