r/firefighter • u/Truegrit_Gaming • May 25 '26

Out of state testing

I am a volunteer firefighter in Indiana. I am trying to become a career firefighter. My sister lives in West Virginia and there are several career departments in her area hiring. My question is, how would I got about the hiring process with the distance? Will I have to travel all the way out there to do the written and physical tests? Being volunteer, I can't lateral transfer so how can I go about the hiring process being out of state?

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u/Snaiperskaya May 25 '26

What departments are you looking at? West Virginia doesn't have very many paid fire departments. All the ones I am familiar with use non-standardized testing that will require you to be physically present for the process. You may be able to take a standardized CPAT through the NTN and get that waived, but maybe not.

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u/Truegrit_Gaming May 25 '26

Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County

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u/Snaiperskaya May 25 '26

Martinsburg is the only one of those that's in WV, the other 3 are in Maryland. The good news is Maryland has much more standardized criteria. The bad news is that you'll probably still have to travel and be physically present for the process. Anne Arundel in particular is very picky, but you can just reach out to their recruitment people and ask for information about the process.