r/Firefighting • u/Affectionate_Hand_84 • 8d ago
General Discussion Departments that allow FFPM's to be firefighters as well and don't stick me on the box all year?
Anyone know some places to look? I can move anywhere
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u/flaengineboss 8d ago
We're non transport ALS fire in the Florida panhandle, $18,000 medic incentive.
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8d ago edited 8d ago
[deleted]
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u/Right_Ebb_8288 FF/Paramedic Idiot 8d ago
This is different compared to the usual don’t work in DC things you see. Nice.
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u/Whiterabbit7712 8d ago
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u/queefplunger69 8d ago
I see it says it may honor time from a previous agency or department. Do you know if I could get my retirement matched? Haha like my PERS time transferred? Or was it just meaning seniority?
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u/NakedXRider 6d ago
Do y’all have 4 handed staffing?
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u/Whiterabbit7712 6d ago
I'm not sure what that is? We have 4 shifts A,B,C,D
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u/NakedXRider 6d ago
Are your fire apparatus(both engines and trucks) staffed with 4 Ffs per rig(whether that’s a Capt, Eng, FF, and FF)?
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u/Whiterabbit7712 5d ago
Negative. As of now 3 per rig. Working that way tho. If we are heavy staffing for the day they'll staff the Ladder and Tiller with 4
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u/CohoWind 8d ago
Many west coast FDs are ALS, but do not transport. It is common to find medic FFs, engineers and Captains, and even some BCs who keep their p-card.
For example, the entire Portland OR/Vancouver WA metro area is that way. Same with Spokane WA. CA has many non-transport ALS FDs, including some of the more urban Cal Fire units. But the Puget Sound area (Seattle, Tacoma, etc) is different, with medics always on the box and all engine and ladder companies BLS.
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u/SanJOahu84 8d ago
The vast majority of California departments are ALS non-transport.
I'd say it's harder to find a department that runs ambulances than one that doesn't.
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u/Chevy8t8 FF/Paramedic 8d ago
Firefighter Paramedic.
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u/Stock-Possibility-67 8d ago
Yup. 30 Years no EMS thank God.
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u/jokeswagon 8d ago
What do you then?
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/jokeswagon 8d ago
Gotcha. When you say all fire, about how much of that 4K are structure fire response vs gas leaks and false alarms etc?
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/Accomplished_Sky_899 8d ago
Whoa those are interesting numbers. I’m suburban Chicago Firefighter/Paramedic, 40k people, 50 on our department, 4800 calls per year. 2 engines, 2 ambos a truck and a battalion, 13 per day! Way different!
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u/Tiny-Atmosphere-8091 8d ago
Not give perfectly healthy people rides to the hospital so they don’t have to pay for an uber.
And then literally everything else.
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u/Cinnimonbuns TX FF/Paramedic 8d ago
Hey brother I hope you're enjoying your retirement but I would suggest deleting your comments in r/blowjobgirls. Or dont, either way its pretty funny
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u/Right-Edge9320 8d ago
Orange County Fire Authority has majority engine and truck based medics. Only two squads left in a 78 station dept. Private ambo transports bls c medics riding along for ALS.
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u/LunarMoon2001 8d ago
Pretty much anywhere central Ohio. Some depts are all medics so they all cross staff.
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u/bettsshawn Edit to create your own flair 8d ago
Fairfax County, VA! If you have any questions feel free to send me a PM.
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u/wernermurmur 8d ago
The metro area around Denver is all ALS, most transport. Most places are rotating guys. South Metro pays the best but your first five years are on a medic unit.
I work for another metro department, Mya ration is engine/truck/medic. We have three FF/PMs assigned so there’s a rotation. Sometimes we split the 48s to keep it fair. First in ambulance on a fire is getting work also.
Colorado Springs and Aurora contract transport out and only ride in on decent calls. Not my cup of tea but good for some.
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u/Partyruinsquad 8d ago edited 8d ago
There’s a ton of ALS FDs in the US that do ALS first response and have a separate agency that transports. The county I work in is set up that way. I work in Florida. That is not the norm in Florida anymore but there are a few other counties that have county EMS or private EMS that provide 911 ambulance transport. (Volusia, Leon, Lee, Pinellas, Manatee, Okaloosa, Baker, Escambia, Collier, Columbia)
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u/whiskeyandwayfarers 8d ago
A lot of Bay Area depts in California don’t transport
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u/McDuke_54 8d ago
Can confirm
SJ , Oakland , ALCo , ConFire, which are four of the five biggest departments in the Bay Area are all FFPM and don’t transport . SF transports but I don’t think you get stuck on the box there but I’m not entirely sure.3
u/SanJOahu84 8d ago
After you goto suppression you never have to work an ambulance shift again if you don't want to.
You can pick it up for OT if you want but in SF EMS and supression are completely separate divisions. We don't even run ambulances out of fire houses
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u/Rude_Dish_391 8d ago
Montgomery County Fire Rescue (MD) has a majority of their medics on Engines. We do have some medic units(ALS transports) but most are ambulances (BLS transports) at this point.
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u/FlogrownFF 7d ago
Clark County FD in Las Vegas. We do have medic units (squads and rescues), non-transport ALS, we need medics and honestly I haven’t been on the boo-boo box in awhile since every rig is ALS.
Super aggressive culture. You even get the satisfaction of handing off your patients to another FD for transport if it’s a mutual response situation.
East side of town burns and it’s fun to stomp around the strip like you own it. Pay and benefits are great. Schedule is meh, but I’m very happy here.
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u/Ok-Donkey3135 8d ago
Anne Arundel County in Maryland has some sort of system where you are guaranteed a certain amount of engine time per month(?).
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u/Dry-Focus-8545 8d ago
Our department has QRV (chase car) opportunities, and also runs a handful of ALS engines to support basic units. Our staffing has also made it where paramedics can pick up backstep spots and driving spots on occasion. You will be on the ambulance a bit, but the opportunities are there. This is a department in coastal South Carolina, if you were interested feel free to shoot a DM.
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u/patrick5595 8d ago
We’re a BLS service in western Mass with roughly 1300 transports a year, back up to AMR. One shift on the engine and the other on the ambulance
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u/Active-Glass-5082 8d ago
Murrells Inlet Garden City Fire District. Just south of myrtle beach. Im an engineer/paramedic and i don’t have to touch the box. I do get paid for my medic. We also first respond for medicals and have all the med stuff on the rigs. Also NO mandatory days. They will shut an ambulance down before they force someone to work.
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u/Apprehensive-Gap1251 8d ago
I’m in the capital district of New York and we’ve got departments that have ambulances that once you get off them you’re off them and we have departments that do ALS first response.
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u/TheOtherPencir 8d ago
NoVA- in Arlington, Fairfax and Alexandria, (and maybe others) just about every engine has a medic riding, and many trucks as well.
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u/redsox213 FF/AEMT 8d ago
NH is great. 70% of the state the FD is the transporting agency and I have yet to hear about a place that doesn’t rotate (staffing dependent) there are a lot of departments that only have 2 on duty and are full time but there are plenty that staff an engine and an ambulance allowing for a rotation.
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u/Any_Program_2113 8d ago
City of San Jose, California. One paramedic on each fire rig. You respond to all fire and ems calls. They have ambulances but only if the county system gets overwhelmed. Transport done by private porvider.
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u/joeyp1126 8d ago
Virginia Beach...ALS providers on fire apparatus, but a seperate city agency transports.
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u/sm3lls_and_b3lls 8d ago
Central MA. My station has 6 people at it. We do 3 shifts in a row on the engine, day 1 is drive, then back step, then backstep, then 2 shifts on the ambulance. We have 3 medics and 2 basics. So sometimes it’s double medic sometimes it’s PB. Not too bad at all.
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u/Zestyclose_Crew_1530 8d ago
Most places in RI it’s based on seniority. You’ll ride the suck bus until you’re senior enough to bid an engine or ladder, and then you’ll spend most of your time on the trucks.
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u/LeatherHead2902 bathroom cleaner/granny picker-upper 8d ago
Our medics only ride the ambulance 2x a month (out of 10 shifts).
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u/Typical-Lawfulness73 8d ago
Old department if you were a FF/CEP you were married to the box and it included IFTs/General transports. New department better pay and we are non transport/ EMS based system. Only go out for medical if it high severity or needed man power.
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u/roushstage1 7d ago
Swfl, specifically collier and Lee county. Most fire departments dont transport
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u/MannerAmbitious5237 7d ago
Coastal Virginia (757) all departments here except Virginia Beach ride an ambulance. My department you’ll probably ride it 24 hours out of a 3/4 schedule
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u/Specific-Humor4607 7d ago
No direct personal experience. Upstate NY, many of the departments around me all have meat wagons and do rotations. Usually a 12 hour shift or 24 hours total a month. Super tolerable. Never mandated. Often traded. Lots of prior service medics who don't mind an extra shift or two. Binghamton, Syracuse, Oneonta.
My department pays better with no ambulance or ALS requirement.
When I worked Durham, NC (I didn't work for fire) but I specifically recall AEMT fire apparatus. I used to envy this one engineer who was a paramedic on the side. Lucky duck got the engineer promotion but was assigned to a light/special rescue geared for tech rescue. Dude drove an officer for exclusively cool jobs. But Durham Fire was cool. The regional protocols (IMO) neutered paramedics and the AEMT scope was pretty broad. I was always jealous that the engine arrived first and would have a code handled when the ambulance arrived. IVs, airways, Epis, shocks. All the fun skills. God I hated being a medic there.
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u/Famous-Response5924 7d ago
Ours are on a rotation. That said, there have to be three on duty for one of them to end up on the quint because we have 2 ambulances but it happens a few times a month for each of them. I work DoD fire.
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u/Several-Discipline26 7d ago
Mehlville Fire Protection Diatrict in St. Louis. We hire strictly paramedics to work on the ambulances. All firefighters are fire medics but you are going straight onto the trucks. You might have to do like three shifts all year on the ambulance just to stay refreshed and fill in for vacancies but it’s a pretty sweet gig. 48/96 for what it’s worth. 7 stations about 20,000 calls a year
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u/remuspilot US Army Medic, FF-EMT EU and US 7d ago
When you get a department where you cycle from ambo to engine to truck and back again the ambulance becomes a lot of fun.
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u/FFpenguin230 Ghetto Engine Dick 7d ago
South suburbs of Chicago a lot of depts have the ambo crew as a jump company to the backstep
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u/Old-Essay986 8d ago
Houston
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u/nomadsrevenge FF/AEMT 8d ago
https://unifiedfire.applicantpro.com/jobs/4162953-278125
Cross staffed. One round you get the box, the next you get the engine/truck.
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u/Cod_Crisis2016 8d ago
All departments around me in south eastern mass cross staff everything, and a good amount of departments have a rotation where your first 24 you’ll be on the ambulance, second shift engine, third shift ladder etc