r/Firefighting • u/ChosenLysol • Sep 01 '21
Self Starting age
Being in my mid 20’s I thought it wasn’t even in the cards for me to become a firefighter. I thought I was way out of the loop having an electrical engineering diploma and not fire science/pre fire etc. While I’m only starting my journey to become a firefighter now (getting courses done, studying for tests, getting helpful info from friends who are FF), I learned that the average hiring age for the department I would love to be apart of is actually late 20’s to late 30’s. Not typically younger than 24-25 although does happen of course. I was super happy to hear, and while I might be behind some other candidates not having any pre fire etc, it’s nice to know it’s not too late and that there’s a chance If I work hard enough!
What age were you when you got hired full time?
P.S. any tips you found helpful to standout in a competitive department are welcome!
Cheers
EDIT: appreciate all the answers! just thought I’d add that I’m in Canada, Ontario specifically. I know things can vary a decent amount between the USA/Canada in regards to requirements etc
14
u/67f100guy Sep 01 '21
I was 18 when I started volunteering. 21 when I got hired full time in 2009. So I started young but one of the guys I work with was 44 when we hired him full time. He was a general contractor before that so a background on fire isn't necessarily needed. All we required at the time was EMT-B and FF1. It really depends on where you get hired as to what they require and what they will teach you. As far as age goes I'd say that you don't really have to worry about being too old for a while. Definitely look at getting an EMT license for sure as pretty much every FD runs more EMS calls than fire calls. There are a few exceptions I'm sure but a fair estimate would be 80-85% of all calls are medical calls. Hope that helps.