[Jud n Julie]

Looking to move to Florida in about 1 year. I am wondering about Full time Firefighting positions available and how often they hire?? Any feedback would be great!!!!

[RMD3819]

Originally Posted by Jud n Julie

Looking to move to Florida in about 1 year. I am wondering about Full time Firefighting positions available and how often they hire?? Any feedback would be great!!!!

http://www.fireacademy.org/jobs.htm (broken link)

http://www.fsfa.com/jobsopen.html (broken link)

http://www.fldfs.com/sfm/bfst/Standard/StdFFCrt.htm

In general a department will require you to be Florida certified Firefighter II and/or and EMT or paramedic. Some departments will hire you if you are a FF only but you must agree to complete (or already enrolled in) medic school. Some departments will take you if you are a medic but you must go through (or be enrolled in) FF school.

Up until the talk about tax rollbacks the job market is excellent if you are a dual certified FF/Paramedic.

Are you an EMT or paramedic? What part of Florida do you want to move to?

[Janis Gagliardi]

We are a family of firefighters/. My husband is retired from Daytona and my son is now with New Smyrna Beach. Our son in law was with the Edgewater Fire Dept. Will look into the job hiring status for you.

[heydade]

I am a Lieutenant with a department here in South Florida. Ever since ammendment one (property tax) passed, most departments have put a big freeze on most hiring. Even those departments that really need people have hiring freezes. You can blame the citizens of Florida for that. But I have heard that they are going to raise local taxes and special assessments. Realistically though, I would expect things get back to normal and for department to start hiring again early 2009.

Like one of the posters mentioned, 90% of the departments in Florida are FIRE-RESCUE departments and everyone is cross trained as a firefighter/paramedic. The pay is very good. Most places start at 48k-50K and the top out for a firefighter/paramedic is around 80K. If you get promoted to Lt, Capt...you get paid a lot more.

Those that are interested either do their medical training first or their firefighter training first. You need to become an EMT first to become a Paramedic. There are several fire acadamies scattered throghout the state. Broward Fire Acamedy has a wait list. There is also Coral Springs Fire Academy and Indian River Community College fire academy. I did my training at Indian River in Ft.Pierce back in 1999. There was no wait. The academy is 8 weeks. Generally, there is no reciprocity if you are coming from another state.

Departments SOMETIMES hire Firefighter/EMT's...but most prefer you already have your paramedic license due to cost issues.

Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue is rumored to start hiring in March since they literally have hundreds of people retire every year from their department. But I heard they are only hiring people off the old list. Still, you may want to check. It's a fantastic department to work with.

Let me know if you have any questions...I will be more than happy to answer every single one of them.

good luck.

[firemed]

Heydade just posted some good info for you to use, Its hard to tell what will happen this year.
Right now is not a good time to find a job, We don't know how much the new tax cuts will cut into the operating budgets. This could change so don't give up yet. First what state are you from? Florida will not recognize alot of states. You can check with the Florida state fire college to find out more. EMT or Paramedic license you must check with State of Florida emergency Medical Services. Good Luck

Florida State Fire College Web Site (http://www.fldfs.com/sfm/bfst/index.shtml - broken link)

[RMD3819]

The original post is from 5/07 and the OP hasn't posted elsewhere since 6/07.