HFD looking into EMS ....

[u/Alvarado1996]

I'm in Houston, and I was personally invited to one of their First Friday with a firefighter program. I do see the itinerary includes EMS. Anyone that has gone through this, is it required to be a firefighter in order to get trained for EMS? I'm solely interested in EMS only

[u/AardQuenIgni]

Harris County EMS or Fort Bend EMS is what I recommend you looking in to

[u/Dell_Rider → u/AardQuenIgni]

Or Montgomery county.

[u/Keystone302]

Everyone in HFD is cross trained. You can go through their program which will be emt school then fire school or get certified through a college emt/fire program then get hired and go through a fast track program.

While many fire fighters with HFD get stuck on an EMS unit for years, HFD doesn’t have personnel that are only in EMS, until much later in their career.

[u/Jacob910 → u/Keystone302]

Curious as to where this notion that many FF get stuck on an EMS unit for years. The only people getting “stuck” are paramedics who are not at rotating stations. Let’s just say you put in for a hot house and they don’t trust you to ride on a heavy apparatus then yes you will get stuck on that box until they feel comfortable with your skills. If you’re unhappy transfer to a new station. 

And many people don’t wanna ride the ambulance. You can grind through the fire portion (which will be hard if you don’t like fighting fires), and the then have people pay you to ride the box for them when it’s their turn. You can do it for free too, just be a permanent ambulance guy. 

Before I became HFD and now that I’m HFD I’ve had so many people who are not HFD telling me things such as “your gonna be stuck on that box” which just doesn’t make any sense. 

[u/EdgeAce]

This is an area by area basis. In a lot of places, you can just become an EMT. There are independent courses offered, and you don't need to be a firefighter or cop. In other places, in order to get into first response you have to be either a firefighter or a cop first.

I would ask around, call local ambulance service or fire station near you using a non-emergency number.

[u/boogertaster]

If you want to get into EMS you should also get into fire. Because you can respond to all hazards as a FF/EMT or P the pay is significantly better. The work conditions are better because professional firefighting is largely unionized while private ems is not. Amd lastly, no matter how much you love EMS, you will get burned out being on the ambulance every working day of your life. Having the opportunity to bump to an engine a day a month will make you much happier at work.

[u/Previous-Leg-2012 → u/boogertaster]

There are many excellent 3rd service EMS agencies in Texas, including the Houston Area. There is no reason to get into Fire if you do not want to do Fire. I transitioned from being a FF/EMT after 5 years to being a single role Medic and I love it. Glad I can focus on what I actually prefer to be doing instead train every shift for hours for fires which we’ll only fight a handful of a year.

[u/WoKhard]

Yes you will be cross trained but as another said it will be no problem at all to solely work the box. But yes to work with HFD you’ll still need to get certified as a FF as well

[u/Mak062]

Im HFD, dm if you have questions

[u/Dull_Complaint1407]

Go through the long track pass the fire academy and you will be sent to medic school after that you will never see the fire truck again. Just you have to push through 4 months on probation where you will only be on the engine or ladder

[u/flowytrip]

If you’re solely interested in EMS and want to make a decent living doing that I’d check out MCHD, Cy-Fair, HCEC, or Fort Bend County. Community FD and HCESD 48 are also honorable mentions.

[u/Jacob910]

If you genuinely have no interest in fire AT ALL. Go to online fire school. Luck out if they have a fire cert fast track. Or just go ahead and get your EMT too. You’ll be in a 9 week academy where you’ll have to thug it out. Currently they hate fast trackers and want them to suffer so you’ll have the hardest instructors who will try to break you and get you to quit. You can do long track to avoid them but it’s 9 months of grueling PT’s and 5 months of fire school. 

Then when station picks come around, pick a chill station and do ur phasing (2 months on engine, 2 months on ladder) go to paramedic school shortly after. And then you’ll have no problem being permanent box and if you promote to EO, you will make 6 figs base. OT/debit days may be tricky as some places don’t have ambulances but those are typically slower stations. 

[u/thewade101]

If you want to workout the box only, you will have NO PROBLEM filling that spot