How old do you have to be to be a operational firefighter i your town/state/country

im jus curious
how old do you have to be before you join the fire service in your country
in new zealand you have to be 16 or older to become a fully operational firefighter

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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on May 12, 2009 at 10:55pm

In my department you can join as a junior at 14-18. You can become an active firefighter at 18 and drive the trucks after proper training at 21.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Sterling on May 12, 2009 at 11:20pm

In Pa., you can become a junior firefighter at age 14, and you can become a senior firefighter at age 18. In our dept., even senior firefighters are very limited to what type of activities they can preform on the fireground, until atleast The Essentials of Firefighting class is successfully achieved. We require a junior firefighter to keep his/her grades in school to an acceptable level to remain on the junior roster. Sort of like keeping grades up to stay active in a scholastic sport. The parents really like the fact that their sons/daughters work harder to keep their grades up to stay active in our junior program. We recieve alot of thanks for this.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Tinsley MacKenzie on May 13, 2009 at 12:04am

wow

its really hard to find kids intrested in it here
im the only one in my school and town. the rest of our brigade is 30yr old and up, my father was in the airforce and i had a pop who was in the war as an ambulance driver so i thik working in the services is in my blood

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on May 13, 2009 at 12:14am

I started as a volunteer at 17, but I was about to turn 18 and was also graduating that year also. To be a full-time you have to be certified to atleast FF1 and in order to take the test you have to be 18.