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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on April 28, 2008 at 9:11pm

My town does not have an Explorer post, although we've talked about possibly starting one. However, two towns to the north east, they have one and I believe they have HS students involved with them. I should point out that in my state (Illinois) you have to be 21 years old to be a firefighter.

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Permalink Reply by james on April 28, 2008 at 9:38pm

I am the explore advisor for our towns post. WE have 13 explores all who are in high school. They dont have any problems with the other high school kids in our town they are looked up to.

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Permalink Reply by Richard A. Bradley on April 28, 2008 at 10:01pm

Our department has an explorer post which is 100 % high school students.

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Permalink Reply by CJ on April 28, 2008 at 11:03pm

I started out my fire/ems career as an explorer my sophmore year in high school. We had a fairly constant membership number of about 8-10. After seeing the success we had with our program, a few other local departments decided to start their own explorer programs. My current department has attempted to start an explorer program but due to changing leadership and lack of interest from the community, it's yet to be successful. Since Texas requires firefighters to be 18, most explorer members relinquish their explorer title when they reach their 18th birthday.

Being an explorer taught me so much and helped me discover a career I love. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

Stay strong. Stay safe.

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Permalink Reply by Anya on April 29, 2008 at 12:59pm

Thanks so much for the feedback =]

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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on April 29, 2008 at 1:21pm

Explorer posts/Junior members are those who are in high school or under the age of 18. Departments whould hold these future full time mebers accountable for grades, and also attending training. Try to keep the training to weekends, as to not interfere with school work and projects. With more high schools adding a mandatory community service clause for graduation, more youths are migrating towards the fire service.
In order to maintain a steady flow of juniors, and to be able to hopefully retain the juniors, they must be under 100% supervision, and exposed to what we are truely about. Get them involved in the community (through community based projects) wearing the t-shirt for the department. Great PR available. Make it a big deal when they graduate high school, as they will have that as another posative memory. Spending time together to accomplish similar goals will instill the brotherhood/sisterhood that we all experience in the firehouse.
These explorers are the departments of todays future, and without them starting young and getting the training early, the fire service could possibally take another crippling blow for lack of manpower. Do your homework, assign multiple advisors (always have 2 advisors at once when interacting with any and all of the explorers) and channel the posative energy created by having young blood in your firehouse towards accomplishing great things in your community.

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Permalink Reply by angie the fire/resqmom on April 29, 2008 at 2:31pm

Our department has an Explorer program and i work with them all the time. We have just topped 20 kids. We don't refer to them as "playing firefighter" because they work just as hard as we do. During training they can do as much as we do. I love watching them in the maze or doing extrication. They get such a feeling of accomplishment. Our station 2 ir right accross the street from the high school so we get a lot of intrest from teens. They are great to work with and I'm proud to have my daughter among them. So i incourage all departments to get the program going in their area.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on June 4, 2008 at 1:00pm

I started out as an Explorer many many moons ago and never looked back! I am now the lead advisor of our Post in Knoxville, TN. The age bracket is from 14 (and have completed the 8th grade) to 21 years old. We have close to 20 members, only 4 of those are out of high school. The key to maintaining an active Post is to work with the local school system through "Career Surveys" and having a Fire Dept. presence at career days. A lot of departments have Explorer Posts but I am afraid several have dropped their programs due to this litigious society we live in now and having to hassle with too many lawyers. But, the end result of seeing who really has this calling at a young age and hiring them when they're old enough is worth it. I strongly encourage you to keep the Post active and don't let it slip away.

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