New Jersey volunteer

[rpledit]

Is there a directory of NJ volunteer fire houses? Does the state/county/town actively recruit members for these houses? Are there certification courses that need to be passed in order to apply for a volunteer position? Are there caps to the amount of people in a house?

Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.


P.S.
Does anyone have information about the upcoming NJDOP firefighter test?

[JerseyBoy]

I have no idea about a directory of Vol Fire Houses in NJ.
The department usually has the applications to hand out. I don't know what part of NJ you are from, but I know that Southern Jersey is REALLY hurting for Volunteers. Just go to your local firehouse and talk to the guys.
As for courses. In the state of NJ you are not allowed into a burning building unless you have at least taken Firefighter I. You are accepted to the department, and they will send you to school. If you are anywhere near Middlesex County, they have an excellent academy. You are allowed to go to calls, and help out, and see what goes on, however if it's an actual fire, you will most likely be filling air bottles or something like that. Once you are out of the academy though, you are good to go. But you are still on a probationary period for a year. (at least with my department). You can also sign up to take more courses if you wanted to work your way up the officer chain. All at the departments expense.
As for the NJDOP test, you will have to check out their web site. They will have any information of upcoming tests.

[Blacksheep]

rp- It depends on where you are in the state. To find out the answers to your questions seek out the closest house or go to your local fire officer/marshall/comissioner. ASk the questions. There are plenty of websites out there that you can search on and most municipal websites have info about their departments.

As far as certification you don't need one initially. You will need to go thru Firefighter 1 at your local academy ( this is a basic course
that you must take to be in interior attacks, you will also get haz mat awarness, level 100 incident command and probably some form of weapons of mass destruction awareness). You can then go for extrication (jaws of life certification) and any number of other classes - swiftwater rescue, ice rescue, confined space, high angle, haz mat operations, Fire 2 and 3 and Incident command upto Level 500. The fire service is continually developing so there are ALWAYS new things to learn.

As far as caps on members most places are in desperate need of
new members. There may be something in the BY-LAWs which the department goes by, but I would have to say that most departments are not close to their numbers or would overlook
that.

Finally check out the New Jersey Department of Personnel website for info on the test. I could go on all day. All I can say is that if you are up to the challenge go for it you won't regret it!

Good luck give me a shout if you want more info.

[rpledit]

Thanks for the information. Do you have any advice for someone in the Essex county area?

I noticed that most police academies are "picky" about one's residency(police alternate route program), does the same hold true for fire classes/certs?

[nyfo]

Originally posted by JerseyBoy
If you are anywhere near Middlesex County, they have an excellent academy.
True that!

[Blacksheep]

rp- Essex county is a bit tough because most of the Departments are paid career firemen. HOWEVER, most also have a Reserve or volunteer component that covers shifts as well and you would be elgible to go on runs.

Not to knock Middlesex ( I know that the NJSP HAZ-MAT TECH class is taught there) but, I would say that all the academies are solid. I'm going to plug Passaic County Fire Academy just put up a multi million dollar facility.

The academy is what you make of it. PM me if you need more info.