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Permalink Reply by ashfire on October 14, 2011 at 8:37pm

I have been in the fire service since the 70s and have seen or heard many things about juniors in our dept, the county and the state where I live. A lot of them started at 16 and were regular firefighters at 18 in my dept.                                                                                                         I have heard of depts that have junior firefighter groups that start at 6 years old and but its just for learning until they reach 16. They maybe children of firefighters or children whoes parents allow them to join to learn.

Exploring has part of the Boy Scouts start at 14 and goes to 21 and have differnt rules than some fire depts do about their young members.

Some depts will allow 16 year olds to ride after they have Firefighter One and EMT/CPR training. They will be issued gear that shows they are Juniors. They will be limited on what they are allowed to do in the station and on a incident. 

When I started my brother was 16 and I was 18 so he was a junior and I was a probie. 

Back then there were more juniors and they were right in there with the rest of the crew and a lot of them became great firefighters, ambulance people and officers.

Then the laws changed and the limits came in and juniors had to work outside and stay away from certain operations but can ride apparatus if there is room for them but they must follow orders by officers or senior members.

 

   

 

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Renee Miller on October 14, 2011 at 10:35pm

Ok so I'm in NY company and the company I am in takes kids in as junior members at 16 years old. They are issued a pager and hand me down turn out gear, they are given a probie tag a junior tag and an extrior tag. Our juniors can take any class that they want. They are required at min to have scene support but can take firefighter one if they want. They are allowed to answer calls but they ride on the 2nd 3rd or 4th truck they are not allowed to ride on the 1st truck so if only one truck goes they don't get to go. They are allowed on scene but are not allowed to do intrior work until they are 18. They can man hoses and other scene suport operations. But they are to be with a senior member the junior trainging officer or another line officer at all times...They must maintain a C average in school and not get in to trouble if they get in trouble they are suspended for a min of two weeks and if a grade drops below a C they are suspended until they get it back up to a C...Another thing my company mandates is juniors can not leave school unless they are a senior and are done with there classes and or a line officer comes and gets them (that has yet to happen) and they can not answer calls sunday-thurseday after 10 PM.... Every company has diffrent rules and regulations that they mandate when it comes to junior members that are placed on top of the states reules and regulations.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Turnham on October 16, 2011 at 7:41pm

In the UK they don't have Junior/Explorer fire fighters as such but there are several schemes, set up by local authorities or County Fire & Rescue Services (All fire services are at least County wide, there are no small Volunteer FDs as you know them) to give young people the chance to train for and experience firefighting.

Here are some links to give you an idea of what the schemes are like.

http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=1305
http://www.firewestyorkshire.com/youngfirefighterswest.htm
http://www.southwales-fire.gov.uk/English/yoursafety/sci/Pages/CSI_...
http://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/pages/index.asp?area=4&id=484
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/NewsArchive2007_02Feb07.asp

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