College Student Membership

[wfdpost690]

I am an advisor to my Fire Department Explorer Post. We have about 30 members. Members can start in the Explorer program at age 14. Our Explorers meet every week and take the Probationary Fire Fighter Course given to adult members, with the exception of indoor live fire. Those that choose to enter the FD, do not have to take the Probationary Course if they can show competence by testing out. Although some enter the FD when ther reach 18 years of age, we lose many potential members who go away to college. I am attempting to determine how many Volunteer Fire Departments have college students who are members of their FDs and respond to fire and rescue alarms when they are home for semester breaks, summers or weekends. I also need to know what the requirements for "part-time resident" college students are. How do they meet their annual training requirements? Any help would be appreciated.
I can be contacted at" [email protected]
Thanks for your help,
Gregg

[firefiftyfive]

I am a college student right now and I am an active firefighter with my fire department at home. My department excusses me from any meetings and drills while I'm away from home. (How can you punish someone for going to school) As long as I keep up my traing while I'm away I can be qualified as an interior firefighter as well. I'm lucky because I'm only an hour and a half from home so I can make it home everyonce in a while, but I make most of my training up during my winter and summer breaks from school, which is about 5 months. The only thing I am missing while being away at school is the fireground experience which we all know is always better than just training. So when I am home I go to as many calls as possible to keep my self up to date.
I have looked into joining the fire department that my school is covered by and since I am in the same state all of my training courses are going to transfer over so I I don't have to worry about going to a lot of training before joining, so I am most likely going to join at school as well. The local department near my school is full paid and volunteer and on their application they have a section just for college students to fill out. So I assume they have no problem with non resident members. Any more questions just post em man. Hope I could help a little.

[martinj]

college and the fire service

I am currently a college student who belongs to a volunteer dept. I live about an hour and a half from home, so I have been able to stop home on some weekends, but the majority of my participation is during the summer and breaks. Luckily, with the limited time I am home, I still qualify as an interior firefighter with that department.

Recently though, I have found housing with a local fire dept that has a special program for students. As long as I am a full-time student, I can live at the station for free. The requirements to stay are to participate in approximately 50% or more of training and to as many calls as possible. This has helped to keep up my skills and expand my firefighting knowledge as I work towards my degrees.

I hope this helps. If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me.

Stay Safe.