Reply With QuoteI'm sure they do, you just need a Green Card.Does US fire dep accepts foreign firefighters?
Work in USA as a firefighter
Hello!
I'm studying to o Firefighter in sweden, and in a halv a year i will Graduade from School.. Our "Firefighter" education is 2 year and including a lot teory in risk & safety management and preventing accidens.
I had always a big dream to travel to USA and work as firefighter.
Does US fire dep accepts foreign firefighters?
How many hours do the firefighters generally work?
The salary?
How does the a normal "group system" look generally at fire dep?
In a normal firestation in sweden we work according to this princip:
1 Commander + 4 firefighters in truck, + 1 firefighter who operation laddertruck, + 1 firefighter operation extra "watertruck"...
This formation only occurs when it's a fire.. When it's a car accidents only 1 commander +4 firefighters turn out...
What kind of education does Fire Engineers in USA have and what kind of work do they do?
Anything other interesting worth to tell
I'm sure they do, you just need a Green Card.Does US fire dep accepts foreign firefighters?
Originally Posted by TallGuy
Thx, but that was a obvious answere..
Green card lottery
each state/county/city in the USA has it own programs, you would have to contact one of those. As for getting a green card, or work visa that would be even harder, a lot of fire departments have list of local people that want to join, it is very competitive. My advice is to contact a place you are interested in and speak to the human resources, getting sponsorship will be unjustifiable due to the ability to fill with local residents. The only way is the Green card lottery.
Firefighters, police officers, paramedics (etc..) are all the responsibility of the town or city you're living in. There are no national standards for firefighters. So depending on where you live, the standards, training, hours, salary will all vary. For example, in one town I lived in, 16 year olds could take a month long safety course during the summer vacation and become a volunteer firefighter. Although they wouldn't go in any houses, they would work the radios and help with communications. Some towns, such as the one I'm referring too, was all volunteer (no pay).
The variables really depends where in the US you live. The only thing I can say almost definately is that you will probably work full time which is 30 hours and will probably always be on call. The only prerequisite I can think of is speaking understandable English and living in the town or city you work. Good luck.
Wildcat beat me to it.
small towns and rural communities often have volunteer fire departments... if you manage to get a green card... you might be able to pick up some experience working with a volunteer group until you could get on with a professional unit
Volunteer is the smartest route, unless you already have on the job experience. Most major cities are requiring you already be a EMT-Paramedic before applying, get as much book work as you can, then when you come here, join a Volunteer station and run a few years, or even just a year, then apply.
Work schedules vary, New York runs I believe a 72 on, 96 off. Where I'm from runs a 24 on, 48/72 off, depending on what station you were at, others will run 12 on, 24/36 off.
On a confirmed structure fire, we ran an engine with atleast three (Not counting Volunteers). We would usually roll out of the station with five or six on one engine. The city ran three engines, a ladder truck, medic unit, and CO buggy. Accidents with entrapment were ran either with our Rescue Engine, or the other station's ladder, we were the only two to have cutting tools our on rigs.
If you're talking about FDNY, they would probably run atleast four engines, a rescue, one or two ladders, two medics, BN buggy, and maybe a squad. If they struck a second alarm it would be the same exact amount of apparatus showing up, they can afford the manpower.
The fire district / county most people do the volunteers, I friend from church is a volunteer hoping this year to be picked up.
Our local station has a waiting list for volunteers, and an even longer waiting list for professional firefighters... so there are already enough people in the immediate community to fill the ranks... So you might find that even if you do get a green card and get over here, you might be waiting a while.
The local station here has 2 Engines, 1 Hook & Ladder, 1 Heavy Rescue and a Light rescue/EMS vehicle.
A typical shift has 5 paid guys on at a time, 4 FF's and an Officer. Typical response to a car crash would be 3 Guys and an officer, an EMS run would usually only be 1 or 2 firefighters, and a fire would call for all the paid men to roll on the engine plus additional trucks filled by volunteers.
Professional FF's shifts usually run 48hrs on 24hrs off.
Usually recruitment for professional firefighters (paid) looks for a few things... In NYS you are required to have passed the Firefighter 1 and Firefighter 2 exams, gone through an accredited Fire academy or college and about 90% of the stations also look for EMT-D or paramedic status. Typically if you are interested in going into professional firefighting, you get sponsorship from a station and enroll in a community college or academy for training, which usually not only includes the minimum (Firefighter 1 and 2), but also classes in things like Ropes, Confined Space, Swift Water Rescue, Aircraft Rescue and now more and more often Hazmat/WMD incidents. Usually you also will be enrolled in EMT or Paramedic classes as well.
Requirement for volunteers is more open to each company to decide... The station here allows anyone over the age of 16 to join the explorer program, which gives basic classes and exposure to some work- though they are not allowed to enter a burning structure, use most power equipment or drive vehicles...usually they are used to secure the scene or work the communications equipment. Once they turn 18 they are put on the list of willing volunteers, and each year a bunch are selected. Those who are selected go through a fairly short initial training seminar to obtain Firefighter 1 status- which allows them to actively be part of the firefighting team with a few exceptions (again, driving and interior attack) and as time goes on they usually attend weekly drills/seminars to gain credit towards firefighter 2 and Driver Status. Typically drivers must be paid firemen or volunteers over the age of 21 that have Commercial Drivers Licenses and have passed the Drivers training.
Also, another thing to consider... what sort of thing you wanna be doing. The station here lies in a fairly old residential area, and being so, most of the runs are EMS...where is in more built up areas your going to see more Motor Vehicle accidents and more fires... Look at the call logs for different stations if you can (the one here has it posted on their bulletein board) and it will give you an idea of what kinda runs they typically go on.
If he has some flexibility regarding location... he shouldn't have any problem finding a volunteer position.
I have a couple of good friends who are firefighters. They both had to volunteer for at least 5 or 6 years before being aked if they wanted to go full time and actually get paid. Looong waiting lists in rural type areas, maybe diffrent in the cities.
Check with your fire service over here there is a program called the international firefighter fellowship, i know of one that went to the US and two that went to the UK on exchange.
Here in Florida, it is somewhat easier to get hired on, you dont have to volunteer for years to increase your chances of getting hired. The only down side is, most of the time you have to pay for your own school. In states like Georgia, you go through a testing process, get hired on, then they pay your way through the Academy and so on.. I have had to dish out about 10,600 bucks for my EMT/Fire/Paramedic school. But a plus side about Fl is our standards are accepted in most states except NY and a few others I believe.
If you want to try to get a job down here, best advice I can give you is get your Paramedic too, most departments wont even look at you if you dont have your medic down here.
Salaries down here range from 32,00-36,000 FF/EMT and 34,000- 40,00 for FF/Medic starting out..
24/48 is our schedule..
Good luck to you!
24 hours on duty at the station straight?
**** that you guys are getting hammered by the man.
Come down to Australia and work as a volunteer country firefighter. Quite a few of our experienced bushfire fighters have wound up working in the US fighting the forest fires they have over there
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