how to become a firefighter

top madra

as above,id like to become a fire fighter...

is there any tips or something i could be doing to greatly improve my chances of getting a job..

im 28yrs old and currenly work in construction,i have no back ground in anything to do with the fire service..

should i try and join the civil defence or something first..

this would be a dream job for me so any tips would be greatly appreciated..

Shield

I would imagine if you were to volunteer as a Retained Firefighter it would help your chances in the future.

ivabiggon

psni wrote: »

I would imagine if you were to volunteer as a Retained Firefighter it would help your chances in the future.

sorry just to correct you there, you can volunteer as a firefighter in the Aux. fire service which is a branch of the Civil Defence, but as a retained firefighter you get paid for this and thus brings with it competition for the position.
this is done through your local county council.
if your living in a rural area this would be your first port of call, or keep an eye on the local papers for advertisements.
but you are right, contact your local civil defence and enquire about the AFS, then to boost your chances maybe try a heavy driving coarse.
if your living in a city that has a full time fire service you'll have to wait for advertisements aswell, but unfortunely with recruitment embargo across the civil service this could be long wait.
good luck

Shield

Always open to correction, so thanks for that. I thought this was someone people could volunteer for?

ivabiggon

i suppose you do volunteer in a certain amount of respect, in so far as you give up your spare time in your locality and are tied to pager and have to be within a realistic distance of your fire station in order to turn out in due time. but the competition for these jobs are as tough as the competition for the full time, personally i think it's a tougher job than working in the full time service, it takes alot of commitment from you and your family, alot of structure behind your social life and worst of all the chances of knowing the unfortunate victims of incidents you attend are very high, could even be members of your family. that carries with it a lot of serious emotional baggage for you to carry through your career. where as if your working in a full time job the firefighter knocks off their shift, heads home and chances are you will live outside your serving area, so it gives a chance to switch off completely and recharge your batteries.
As a full time firefighter in the city and who lives in a rural town served by a retained service i hold a hugh amount of respect and admiration for the lads in rural areas who devote their personal life to supplying a fire and rescue service in their locality for the safety of others.
I for one wouldn't like to do their job, i'm just happy to just switch off and go home.

Shield

Great post. Answers a lot of questions. Thanks for this.

ivabiggon wrote: »

i suppose you do volunteer in a certain amount of respect, in so far as you give up your spare time in your locality and are tied to pager and have to be within a realistic distance of your fire station in order to turn out in due time. but the competition for these jobs are as tough as the competition for the full time, personally i think it's a tougher job than working in the full time service, it takes alot of commitment from you and your family, alot of structure behind your social life and worst of all the chances of knowing the unfortunate victims of incidents you attend are very high, could even be members of your family. that carries with it a lot of serious emotional baggage for you to carry through your career. where as if your working in a full time job the firefighter knocks off their shift, heads home and chances are you will live outside your serving area, so it gives a chance to switch off completely and recharge your batteries.
As a full time firefighter in the city and who lives in a rural town served by a retained service i hold a hugh amount of respect and admiration for the lads in rural areas who devote their personal life to supplying a fire and rescue service in their locality for the safety of others.
I for one wouldn't like to do their job, i'm just happy to just switch off and go home.

top madra

ivabiggon wrote: »

sorry just to correct you there, you can volunteer as a firefighter in the Aux. fire service which is a branch of the Civil Defence, but as a retained firefighter you get paid for this and thus brings with it competition for the position.
this is done through your local county council.
if your living in a rural area this would be your first port of call, or keep an eye on the local papers for advertisements.
but you are right, contact your local civil defence and enquire about the AFS, then to boost your chances maybe try a heavy driving coarse.
if your living in a city that has a full time fire service you'll have to wait for advertisements aswell, but unfortunely with recruitment embargo across the civil service this could be long wait.
good luck

thanks mate...do you have to wait for jobs to come up or can you just drop in a application form so your on file and they know your really interested when a job finally does come up..

ya im in a ruralish area i would much prefer to do it full time but if i was to get a job as a retained ff,that would be a stepping stone to a fulltime job..id imagine..

Delancey

I would guess that service as a retained Fire Fighter or failing that , service in the AFS would be of benefit . However I knew a number of guys who were in the AFS for that very reason but still could not get into a full time position , similarly I know 2 Retained Fire Fighters who have tried several times for full time and not got in - the competition is , I believe , fierce.

fastbowler

At the moment the Dublin Fire Brigade still has a large panel waiting to be called in so they won't be recruiting for a few years, whereas Limerick Fire Brigade were recruiting a few weeks ago though they are only expected to take on about 7 firefighters so you can imagine how tough the competition is going to be. Local retained fire services generally fill positions as lads retire or get promoted. My local station here recently took on two firefighters. Just keep your an eye on recruitment sections in the papers and publicjobs.ie and if its for ye it won't pass ye

ivabiggon

delancey42 wrote: »

I would guess that service as a retained Fire Fighter or failing that , service in the AFS would be of benefit . However I knew a number of guys who were in the AFS for that very reason but still could not get into a full time position , similarly I know 2 Retained Fire Fighters who have tried several times for full time and not got in - the competition is , I believe , fierce.

ye the competition is very tough, but the biggest hurdle applicants go down on is the first one, the aptitude test, i'd always recommend people building up their CV through doing various coarse's and joining voluntary organisations and getting an insight into the job. it isn't a question of just sending in a cv you'll have to wait till it's advertised.

Like I said the heavy licence is a big plus, EMT, paramedic coarses HR/management coarses etc, basically anything that makes you more attractive to the employer than the next canditate, in other words if you present with qualifications that will save the council money as they wouldn't have to train you, your automatically seem a better choice for them.

but all that is no use to you unless you get pass the aptitude test, unfortunately this is why alot of highly qualified retained firefighters and paramedic around the country going for full time firefighter positions don't get the job.
In my personal opinion the aptitude test isn't a true test weather your suited for the job but just a way to bring down numbers to a more manageable level financially and logistically for the employer.

so in a nut shell and in no particular order...

Join the vol. services, and be active with them
Try for the retained service in your area ( i don't think they require an aptitude test). and do what ever coarse's they offer.
Do first responder coarses,
Study the IQ books, maybe try some of these private weekend coarse advertised for aptitude tests.
Maybe an academic qualification in HR or IFE (institute of fire engineers)
Get to know someone in the service they're will always be an insight into whats been asked in the interviews within the job,

oh if you get to interview stage it's generally a competency based interview, this is were you have to hit a certain amount of point in the questions they ask.
other than that there is not much more i can help you with.
good luck and do the ground work and be patient.

if you fail you can alway try the guards!!!!! LOL

Shield

ivabiggon wrote: »

if you fail you can alway try the guards!!!!! LOL

Zambia

ivabiggon wrote: »

if you fail you can alway try the guards!!!!! LOL

He he ...

OP you could also try getting into forces in the UK. Sometimes the career you want is not or will not be avialible in Ireland

If you really want to be a fire fighter explore every avenue

top madra

thanks for all the help lads...

do jobs that come up always appear on this forum,i am very disappointed that i did not see the jobs for limerick earlier as i have now missed the closeing date by just a few days..

Elessar

The easiest option to get into a fire service would be to join the DAA doing anything (trolley pusher even) until they start recruiting for the airport fire services. It's internal recruitment only so you have a much better chance of getting in. If Dublin gets a new runway I believe they will need to recruit more firemen to maintain cover to international standards.

ivabiggon

i had forgotten the airport fire service, good job, well paid, probably better than the full time services at this stage and not subject to public pension levies etc.
Only from a Dublin airport fire service point of view, i know nothing about the rest of the airport fire services around the country.
their experience in ordinary everyday fire fighting and rescue would be limited, but they do have a rigorous training schedule in relation to aircraft fire fighting and probably do more training on the rta,domestic front as they have the facilities and time to do it. they also run an ambulance and have up to date paramedic traininf through the DFB,but still a very good job. might consider it myself from a financial point of view

Bang Bang

Elessar wrote: »

I believe they will need to recruit more firemen to maintain cover to international standards.

tut tut Elessar, I've met many a good looking FireGIRL on calls inwork:D

Elessar

Bang Bang wrote: »

tut tut Elessar, I've met many a good looking FireGIRL on calls inwork:D

True that, some crackers in the fire service :pac:

Henceforth Firemen/women shall now be referred to as FireHumans

Bang Bang

Elessar wrote: »

True that, some crackers in the fire service :pac:

Henceforth Firemen/women shall now be referred to as FireHumans

:D

top madra

if anyone knows of some websites that will give me more tips,post away..

Leo Demidov

top madra wrote: »

if anyone knows of some websites that will give me more tips,post away..

http://www.irishfireservices.ie/pages/downloads.htm

Plenty of useful info

top madra

i got screened by the gardai for something different and i saw the results today..

i had a public order in 2000 for being drunk and another thing in 2002(a little bit more serious)

would these stand against you when applying?

ivabiggon

probably, in fact most likely, it would be on a par with what i said about reducing numbers, the medical and garda checks are the last things to be done, and applicant have failed on things like eye sight etc, as the council looks on it from the point of view why should we take on a problem when the next candidate has a perfect medical, that from a full time service veiw don't know about the retained, and depends on the 2nd more serious thing. just to clarify were you convicted of an offence?

top madra

i got drunk one new years eve and had a fight with a neighbour,it went to court but my neighbour dropped the charges in court and the judge said grand but i got 12months probation..

top madra

top madra wrote: »

i got drunk one new years eve and had a fight with a neighbour,it went to court but my neighbour dropped the charges in court and the judge said grand but i got 12months probation..

and infairness this was a one off drunken madness nearly 9years ago and its not a true reflection of who i am..

Zambia

Fair play for sharing that as in the very least it reminds people that small moments of madness can really follow you for ages.

Hope this one does not hinder you that much.

Sky123

Hi there,
I just passed the aptitude test for firefighters for DFB next stage are interviews. Anyone got any hints tips or has been for an interview for firefighters before and knows what they will be asking ? Any help is appreciated

Fire1985

Sky123 wrote: »

Hi there,
I just passed the aptitude test for firefighters for DFB next stage are interviews. Anyone got any hints tips or has been for an interview for firefighters before and knows what they will be asking ? Any help is appreciated

I take it your working for the council already to be getting interviewed now?
The control room jobs were advertised today!


Anyways,I am starting full time in cork in September . The interview was ok. They asked a few fire brigade questions. One was on haz chem. UN numbers and emergency action code. Mostly general questions. Probing questions to see how you think

truebluesac

As of today DFB dispatchers required . Position advertised on public jobs.ie

OU812

Very low starting salary on that role. Anyone know what the shift allowances are?

truebluesac

Its a new possition so not set in stone . But if you read on it says possibility of going operational after 3 years so that would boost interest me thinks

fireman1978

Hi everyone!

I'm firefighter 7 years now, I live and work in Hungary, but I would like to move to Ireland in the near future.
Does anyone know what should I have to do to be firefighter in Ireland?
Should I send my CV for all HR Department?

or What is the first step?

Thank you in advance your help!

truebluesac

fireman1978 wrote: »

Hi everyone!

I'm firefighter 7 years now, I live and work in Hungary, but I would like to move to Ireland in the near future.
Does anyone know what should I have to do to be firefighter in Ireland?
Should I send my CV for all HR Department?

or What is the first step?

Thank you in advance your help!

Not sure of the standard of training recieved in hungary so pardon my ignorance . But in ireland we are trained in
RTA , chemical incidents , fire fighting , comparment fire fighting , structural firefighting , high rise fire fighting , water awareness , gorse fires , car fires , bus train and tram rescue etc , lift rescue , pump operations ,

Specilist courses that may stand to you are
Driving , SRT , MER , high line rescue , paramedic ,

Depending on where you want to go to and if you are thinking of a years swap with another firefighter or permanent living here then full time vs retained depending on where you would live etc

Also its not all that easy to get a job in the fire services here ,

Hope this helps

fireman1978

truebluesac wrote: »

Not sure of the standard of training recieved in hungary so pardon my ignorance . But in ireland we are trained in
RTA , chemical incidents , fire fighting , comparment fire fighting , structural firefighting , high rise fire fighting , water awareness , gorse fires , car fires , bus train and tram rescue etc , lift rescue , pump operations ,

Specilist courses that may stand to you are
Driving , SRT , MER , high line rescue , paramedic ,

Depending on where you want to go to and if you are thinking of a years swap with another firefighter or permanent living here then full time vs retained depending on where you would live etc

Also its not all that easy to get a job in the fire services here ,

Hope this helps

Thank you very much for your help!

I think we work the same duties (based on what I read)
There are many rescue drills in year (I live in capital, so I can exercise example metro-, tram-, train lifting/rescue/fire fighting.
There is no possibility for a firefighter who works in the countryside.)

I love my job, I'm good at my job, and I thought if I move to Ireland I would like to do this job there. We will see

Some friends live in Dublin, I'm going to talk with them and maybe I'll go to Ireland for a few days and look around, before I'll move to.

It isn't to be a vital issue for me, so if it fails, it wont collapses my world I just thought worth a shot