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CDF info

Posted on 08/16/2005
by bajav

I live in San Diego and have my EMT-1 cert. To be honest, I am not very interested in the medical aspect of firefighting at all. My heart is not in the medical field and I do not have the will to attempt medic school. That being said, I would like some info on "other" firefighting jobs that are offered as opposed to getting hired for the city of S.D. I am very interested in fire sciences and what not, and I am willing to learn more about firefighting, just not medical. ANY info on some other types of firefighting opportunities would be awesome. I know a little about CDF, but not much, could anyone here tell me more? For instance seasons, training invloved, salary, ect.? Thanks in advance.


Posted on 08/17/2005
by suprdan

You can learn more about CDF at there website.
[url=http://]http://www.fire.ca.gov/php/[/url]
Even CDF runs medicalaids, Everyone runs madicalaids.
Lots of luck



Posted on 08/17/2005
by AFed

You might be interested in the Federal wildland agencies as well, particularly the US Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management, while medical is becoming more common even in these agencies it is a much smaller part, neither require EMT although it is considered a plus, First Responder is the required level for permanent employees. Engine crews in California run the most medical calls, Helitack and hand crews generally only deal with walk in medicals and medicals involving fire crews on the line as do engine crews outside California. The National Park service runs more like a municipal department running ambulances and structure engines but medicals is still not as large a % of the call volume as most fire departments.

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/

http://www.fire.blm.gov/

http://data2.itc.nps.gov/fire/index.cfm

Salaries for all of these agencies is much less than typical California fire departments including CDF, in California the season typically runs May-Oct in South Zone (Modesto / Merced --> south), North zone is usually a little shorter May / June to September, although because of students and the school year it is generally possible to work longer. Minimum training to get hired is 18 and a US Citizen, to be well qualified basic wildland training (S130 Wildland firefighting, S190 Wildland fire behavior, and I-100 Intro to ICS) and first aid, first responder or EMT is definately an advantage. If you are in very good shape and think working yourself to death is fun you would probably like a hotshot crew, that is also the way to make the most money.

If you have any other questions on these agencies feel free to ask, I'll answer them as best as I can.



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