|
How Do I Find Out Which Fire Departments
Are Accepting Applications. Part 2 In the last article, I discussed Phase 1: Developing your
firefighter candidate research binder. This is critical because you want to have testing information at your fingertips and not have to wait for others to tell you which fire department is accepting applications. You
should still be paying for a service to notify you of firefighter job openings as a back-up plan; but this research binder will put you in charge of your own destiny!
IS THIS A WASTE OF MY TIME DOING THIS?
First of all, it is not a waste of time. Think back to the need to be proactive. Do you want to be in charge of your own destiny, or do you want someone else to be? I would rather have myself be in charge. That way,
I have no one to blame but myself. Also, think of it as a way to educate your self in your local and regional geography. Testing to become a firefighter took me to places I probably never would have ventured to
otherwise, and it really educated me as to what cities and counties are within the State of California. Remember, knowledge is power. You never know when that information might be useful in the future. By building this
data base now, it will help narrow your focus in the future, thus allowing you to save time and also concentrate on other areas.
The best way to be proactive is to do your own research. In the last article, I
showed you how to start your research by getting a binder, and blank sheets of paper. I had you start by drawing a 50 mile radius around your residence, and then 100, 150, and 200 mile radius markings around your
residence. I then had you list out county-by-county, each city that was within that county, within the 50 mile radius closest to your house.
Now we will continue developing your testing data base to assist you
in finding out when a fire department will be accepting applications.
You will end up with a binder having 3 Chapters as follows;
Chapter 1 - Fire Departments: County-by-county
Chapter 2 - Fire Departments: City-by-city
Chapter 3 - Action plan / to-do list
II. PHASE 2 (Organizing your firefighter candidate research binder into chapters)
A. CHAPTER 1: Fire Departments County-by-County.
Label your first section Chapter 1. This chapter will contain information on the cities within each county, and who provides the fire protection services. We now
need to find out which Fire Departments are providing service within each county. How do we do this? We start by going to the local library. Every public library I have been to has a section of phone books, from the
local area, throughout the state, and nationwide. Find a comfortable table and get the phone books from the first county you are going to research.
Let's say your first county is Santa Clara County. In the front
of most phone books are the blue pages, which are the government pages. Each city and county has listings in the blue sections, and is listed alphabetically. Here is where you will need to look, city by city, for the
words fire department. If there is a fire department in that city, you will usually find the business phone number, in addition to the address of their headquarters.
For example, the City of Campbell is covered
by the Santa Clara County Fire Department. The address and business phone numbers are listed there. Now on your sheet of paper that you have started by listing the name of the county and the cities within that county,
to the right of the City of Campbell, write Santa Clara County Fire Department in the space under Fire Dept. In the blue pages, if you continue to the City of Cupertino, you will see they are also protected by the Santa
Clara County Fire Department, so put the same information in the space provided. Gilroy is your next city, and they have their own fire department, so write Gilroy Fire Department in the space to the right. Let's assume
we've gone through the phone book for the whole county, and that here is the information we have discovered:
In theory, you should have anywhere from one county up to maybe 15 counties (or more, depending on how
ambitious or motivated you are) listed in alphabetical order in Chapter 1.
Santa Clara County
CITY:
FIRE DEPARTMENT:
Campbell
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Cupertino
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Gilroy
Gilroy Fire Department
Los Altos
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Los Altos Hills
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Los Gatos
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Milpitas
Milpitas Fire Department
Monte Sereno
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Morgan Hill
Santa Clara County Fire Department
Mountain View
Mountain View Fire Department
Palo Alto
Palo Alto Fire Department
San Jose
San Jose Fire Department
San Martin
South Santa Clara County F.P.D. / CDF
Santa Clara
Santa Clara Fire Department
Saratoga
Saratoga Fire District / Santa Clara Co. Fire
Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety
B. CHAPTER 2: Fire Departments City-by-City
Label
the second chapter of your binder, Chapter 2. Now that we have found out which fire departments are in the county, we can now narrow our research down. Based on the Santa Clara County example above, I will start with
the Santa Clara County Fire Department. Why? Because if you notice, they provide service to the cities/towns of Campbell, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, and portions of
Saratoga. I can just write Santa Clara County Fire Department on the top of the page and list the cities that they provide services to. That way, I don't have to phone each of those cities individually, I can just
contact the Santa Clara County Fire Department. Now you can write out individual pages for each city or fire department, but I would suggest creating a template (or using the sample I have provided), making copies of it
to put into chapter 2.
NOTE: The testing process for firefighters for most county fire departments is usually done through the County Personnel / Human Resource offices, just like with municipal fire
departments. However, in the case of Santa Clara County, the Fire Department Personnel Office handles the testing process.
Because you will be listing fire departments in various counties, I would suggest
separating this Chapter with dividers of the Counties that you are concentrating on, in alphabetical order. For example, since I live in San Jose, I would initially concentrate on the following counties: Santa Clara,
Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Francisco, San Benito, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, and probably Marin. That is a lot of different counties. Putting them in alphabetical order with a divider, starting with Alameda,
would make my life easier. Then within each county, I would list the fire departments in alphabetical order.
Here is a sample form I suggest that you use. I feel it covers a majority of the information that a
candidate would need to be one of the best prepared candidates.
SAMPLE FIRE DEPARTMENT INFORMATION TEMPLATE
Fire Department Name: ___________________________________________________
Headquarters
Address: ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
F.D. Website Address: ___________________________________________________
Business Phone Number:
____________________ Year established: ____________
Cities / Communities served: _______________________________________________
Population Served: _____________ Square Miles: _____ I.S.O. Rating: ___
Level of EMS provided: __________ ALS Engines? _____ ALS Trucks? ___
Ambulance Transport provided by: ____________________________________________
Dispatching services provided by:
____________________________________________
Total Calls last year: _________ EMS: __________ Fire: ________ Other: _______
I.A.F.F. Union Local #: _________ Name of Union President: ____________________
F.D. Budget: ______________________
APPARATUS
# of Stations: _____ # of Engine Companies: ________ # of Truck Companies: _______
# of Ambulances: ______ # of Rescue Companies: ______ # of
Battalions: ________
# of Haz Mat units: _____ Other specialized equipment: __________________________
__________________________________________________________
Apparatus Manufacturers Used:
_______________________________________________
STAFFING (Personnel on each type of apparatus)
Engines: ____ Trucks: ____ Rescues: _____ Other: _________________
_________________________________________________________
Minimum # of personnel on duty each shift: _______
PERSONNEL
Total # of personnel: __________ # of uniformed: ______ # of civilian:
___________
Fire Chief: ______________________________________________________________ _
Deputy Chiefs: #: ____ Names / Divisions overseen:
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Assistant Chiefs: #: ____ Names / Divisions overseen:
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Division Chiefs: #: ____ Names / Divisions overseen:
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Battalion Chiefs: #: ____ Suppression: _________________________________________ Administrative:
______________________________________
# of Captains: ____ # of Lieutenants: ____ # of Engineers: _____ # of Firefighters: _____
Volunteer or Reserve Firefighter program? _________ # of Vol / Res FF's:
____________
Requirements: _________________________________________________________
Their role: _________________________________________________________
# of Fire Prevention Bureau personnel: ________ Fire
Prevention positions:__________
_________________________________________________________
Fire Investigation duties handled by: _____________________________________________
Public Education duties handled by:
_____________________________________________
WAGE & BENEFIT INFORMATION
Type of Retirement System: _____________ Retirement Formula: ______________
Retirement contribution: Paid by Department?
_____ Paid by employee? _______________
Medical Benefits: Paid by Department? _____ Paid by employee? ___________________
Entry Salary: __________ Top step Firefighter Salary: ____________ Years to top step: ____
EMT incentive? ________ Paramedic incentive? ________ Uniform Allowance? _________
Other specialty pay: ________________________________________________________
Type of shift worked:
________________________________________________________
Vacation days: ________________________________________________________
EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION:
Personnel / Human Resource Office:
Address:
_________________________________________ Phone: ___________________
_________________________________________ Job Line: ________________
City / County web site:
__________________________________________________________
Utilize Cooperative Personnel Services (CPS) or Firehire for testing? _____________________
Testing process consists of (check all that apply): written
test: _____ oral interview: ________
Physical ability test: ______ Background investigation: ______ Chief's interview: ____
Medical Examination: _____ Polygraph: ______ Psychological Examination: ___________
Other: __________________________________________________________
Minimum Requirements for firefighters: ____________________________________________
Last tested: ____________ # hired off last list: _________
Next test? ___________
Present vacancies: ______ Projected future vacancies: _______________________________
Length of Academy: ____________ Length of probation: ________________________
MISCELLENEOUS
Major Target Hazards: __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Type of area served by the fire department:
__________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Future stations planned? _________________________________________________________
Future projects planned
by the department? __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
First alarm assignment: _______________________________________________________
Second
alarm assignment: _______________________________________________________
Third alarm assignment: _______________________________________________________
Busiest Station: _______ Busiest Unit / # of calls last
year: ____________________________
KEY POINT:
I would suggest making multiple copies of this form, punching 3 holes in them, and placing the blank copies in Chapter 2 since these will be your worksheets
when you contact fire departments and personnel departments.
Feel free to modify this template as you find necessary. You may even think of many other relevant items to include when doing your research.
NOTE: If you would like a copy of this in Microsoft Word, email me at sprziborowski@chabotcollege.edu and I will email you a copy.
In the next issue, I will discuss how to obtain specifically obtain the
information that is expected to be placed into each of the blanks on your fire department information sheet. That article will cover Phase 3: Obtaining the necessary information for your firefighter candidate research
binder.
I will also discuss the last chapter of your binder, Chapters 3. Chapter 3 will be your action plan/to-do list so you can plan ahead and make notes to yourself as part of your action plan.
Until then, keep plugging away - there is a badge out there just for you!
Steve Prziborowski is a Captain with the Santa Clara County (Los Gatos, CA.) Fire Department and has been in the fire service for 12
years. He is also the Fire Technology Coordinator at Chabot College in (Hayward, CA.), where he has been instructing fire technology and EMT courses for 10 years. He is a state certified Chief Officer, Fire Officer,
Master Instructor, Hazardous Materials Technician, and state licensed Paramedic. He has an Associate's degree in Fire Technology, a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice, and a Master's degree in Emergency Services
Administration.
He also publishes a free monthly newsletter geared toward better preparing the future firefighter for a career in the fire service, "The Chabot College Fire & EMS News," that is available on his
website at www.chabotfire.com Click here to enter your e-mail address
to receive FREE firefighter exam notices and our Fireprep.com newsletter.
Click here to return to How to Become a Firefighter homepage! Click here to return to FirePrep.com homepage: Click here to review FirePrep.com past newsletters: Click here to review our Entry-Level Preparation Products:
|
|
