Firefighter Hiring Process Components:
  The Recruit Academy

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OVERVIEW OF THE RECRUIT ACADEMY

When a fire department hires you as a firefighter, they will usually put you through a recruit academy lasting anywhere from one week to six months in duration. These academies usually run from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (or some other variation lasting from 8 hours to 10 hours per day) and last the entire week, from Monday through Friday. 

In California, the typical length of a recruit academy is 8 weeks to 12 weeks.  Even if you have already completed a firefighter academy at a community college (such as Chabot College) or through another fire department where you had previously worked as a firefighter, you will still usually have to go through a full academy (unless the department requires a firefighter 1 certificate and/or firefighter 1 academy completion certificate - if they do, then sometimes they only have a one or two week mini-academy to orient you to the way they do things). 

Why would I still want to complete a firefighter 1 academy through a community college such as Chabot College if the fire department is going to put me through one anyway?  Well, first of all, having completed a firefighter 1 academy at a community college allows you to apply for more firefighter tests since some departments require you have completed an academy just to take their test.  Second, it is not uncommon for newly hired firefighters to be terminated (fired) during their recruit academy for various reasons such as poor physical conditioning, attitude problems, discipline problems, tardiness problems, substandard scores on their written tests and / or skills tests, etc. 

Getting terminated by one fire department is not the end of the world, but it definitely does not increase your chances of getting hired by another fire department in the future.  Going through a firefighter 1 academy offered at a community college first lets you know your strengths and weaknesses and proves to you (and others including fire departments) that you should have what it takes to get hired as a firefighter and keep your job as a firefighter. 

Some of the community college firefighter 1 academies have reputations of being more challenging and demanding than some academies that are put on by fire departments for their new recruits.  Successfully completing one of these academies not only looks good on your resume, but also helps set you up for success when you finally get hired by your dream fire department.

I was sure happy that I had gone through Chabot's firefighter 1 academy prior to going through the recruit academy when I was hired as a full-time firefighter.  Many of my recruit academy classmates had NEVER been through an academy before (or had even taken any fire technology classes), and it really made it difficult for some of them because they were learning information for the first time and having to really study hard and for long hours in the evenings and weekends when the academy wasn't occurring.  Since I had already been through an academy before (which had used the same textbook), going through my department's recruit academy was not that stressful because I was just reviewing and refreshing what I had already learned. 

Many fire department recruit academies require you to maintain an 80% average on ALL written test scores.   Not maintaining an 80% average can (and sometimes does) lead to termination!  Are you doing this now in your fire technology classes?  If not, then you better find out what it takes to increase your scores so this does not happen to you. 

There are usually two different textbooks that are utilized in most recruit academies:

- Essentials of Firefighting, published by the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA).  The fourth edition is the latest edition, and can be purchased at various locations including the IFSTA website, the Firefighters Bookstore and FSP Books and Videos.

- Firefighter's Handbook: Essentials of Firefighting and Emergency Response, published by Delmar Publishers.  The 2000 edition is the latest edition and can be purchased at various locations including the IFSTA website, the Firefighters Bookstore and FSP Books and Videos.

It is my experience that most fire technology degree programs and academies utilize one of the above textbooks (at Chabot, we utilize the Essentials of Firefighting by IFSTA).

The typical day at a recruit academy may start off with physical conditioning/physical fitness, have you complete a multiple-choice written test, and then combine the rest of the day with lectures on various firefighting topics such as:

- fire behavior
- fire investigation
- fire prevention
- utilization of ladders and hose
- cultural diversity
- history of the fire service and of the department you are working for

and manipulative (hands-on) skills practice and testing on performing various firefighting practices such as:

- ladder evolutions
- hose evolutions (structure and wildland)
- individual performance standards (donning an SCBA, pulling a pre-connected hose-line, etc.)
- team performance standards (simulated fire attack evolutions, rescue procedures, etc.)
- rescue practices

WEBSITE RESOURCES FOR RECRUIT ACADEMIES:

On his website www.eatstress.com - Captain Bob has a web page worth looking at.

• This one discusses how to survive the recruit academy -  CLICK HERE to go to that page.

Successfully completing a fire academy is not as easy as you think.  It is not uncommon for some departments to hire 50 people, have those 50 people start the academy, and then only graduate 30 to 40 of those original people.  Why might you ask would they terminate people?  There are many reasons why.   Here are some excellent posts found on the Bulletin Board of the Perfect Firefighter Candidate website:

Reasons why people get terminated from fire academies:

www.firecareers.com/viewmessages.cfm?Forum=11&Topic=2831

www.firecareers.com/viewmessages.cfm?Forum=11&Topic=2823

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