Federal FF Branches

[Pancho]

Hey, I'm new to the fire scene, I'll be entering fire academy this spring for ff 1/2 hazmat,cpat and emt-b. I was wondering what federal branches there are for FF. I've read about DOD and USFS so far and I am curious to know of more.
I hear a lot about DOD in here but I still don't know what it is. Can anyone give me specific info on what it is, what you do, where you work, shifts, etc..
Anyways thanks for the info!
Stay safe,
Tim

[engineer2000]

DOD stands for Department of Defense. The branches under DOD are Marines, Navy, Army and Air Force. All branches have civilian fire departments. Some still have military FF's along side civilian FF's. There is also Department of Homeland Security which Coast Guard Fire Departments fall under. Few more are VA, DLA and ANG.

Federal Civilian FF's work a 72 hr. work week. There are three different schedules that will accomadate the 72 hr. schedule. Examples,
O= on duty
x= off duty

6/3 schedule: OxOxOxOxOxOxxxO,cycle starts over. Sucks

3/4 schedule: OOOxxxxOOOxxxx, with every fifth week you rotate back one day. You get six months of weekends off with this schedule. Great schedule. There is no A or B shift. People overlap.

2/3 schedule: OOxxxOOxxxOOxx, Great schedule also.

Most Fed. Fire Depts. are all risk. Meaning fire, ems, hazmat and investigations. The pay and retirement is Ok but not compared to our counter parts (municiple or county depts.) at least here in California. When you apply for a Fed FF job. The salary on your announcement seems low pay, but it does not include time and half you get structured in your pay after 53 hours. Also beware where you apply. Some Fed Depts. just collect a pay check and do nothing. Always if you can, go visit the dept. where you applied to. For most depts. the only steps in the process is an interview or some just go off your resume.
My dept. Has interviews along with an agility test (pass/fail), engine pumping evolutuion and 5 station EMT skills test. We combine all areas to get candidates overall score. We try to weed out people who lie on their apps.

Hope all this helps.

[FWDbuff]

24 on, 24 off SUCKS no matter HOW you look at it.......and that 72 on, 96 off? I would be ready to kill someone by dinnertime of day 2.......