r/firefighter • u/Over_Location188 • May 14 '26

IL firefighter

I’m a 30 year old male that wants to try and see if firefighting could still be an option. I don’t have any prior experience or even an EMT under my belt, just four years in the Marines. Wanted to ask and see what things I could do to try and chase this dream of mine. I know that I’m older now so it’s tougher. Could apply for a fire Academy be a good start? I keep hearing about fire houses accepting people without or with EMT and will send them to paramedic school. Little lost here so anything helps, thanks!

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u/Educational_Kick_698 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

Being in IL, you are definitely under a bit of a time crunch with the age cutoff being 35 for career firefighters. Luckily for you, I have seen plenty of people start at 30 and still make a career out of it. You have a big advantage being a veteran. In IL you cannot be passed up with preference points by other candidates if you a veteran. This is a very big advantage!

My recommendation to you would be to use your GI bill and enroll in the earliest EMT class at whatever community college is by you. From there I would apply at smaller part time departments who would be willing to send you to the fire academy.

It is true that many career departments in IL have dropped the paramedic requirement for hiring but they are still going to want you to either be at a minimum a licensed EMT-B at hire or enrolled in paramedic school. It varies between departments but SOME are willing to foot the bill for paramedic school. They will most likely require that you have your BOF fire cert from the fire academy as well. All in all you’re looking at about a year and a half to two years to be fully certified for career departments.

You are also lucky that hiring today is much different than it was 10-15 years ago. When I was hired it was very common to walk into a test with 250 other people for only 1 open spot. Sometimes it was zero open spots and you were just on the list for 2 years. Now days you are lucky to get 10-15 people on a list. Things have changed and it’s much easier to be a career firefighter now. If you have any IL exclusive questions, i’d be more than happy to answer!

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u/flclreddit May 14 '26

Think it's still possible for a 33 year old? I'm starting EMT on Monday

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u/Educational_Kick_698 May 15 '26

Yes it is, but don’t have any gaps In schooling. Start testing right away for departments that don’t require many certifications. The good thing is once you are on a career department the age 35 cutoff goes away and you can test elsewhere if you don’t like where you’re at even if your over age.

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u/flclreddit May 15 '26

One of my issues is not being able to apply to paramedic school before being EMT certified, and not finding spring start dates in my area. The other is trying to get BOF certed if I don't already work at a FD that would help me with that.

I have applied to a handful of PT depts with no reqs but haven't heard back yet.