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It would be better. At least a ECA/first responder.

cpr and first aid at least. in our dept, most ff's also run the ambo side and are EMT cert. it deff helps on scene.

i hope to be an emt soon. so should this be enough t be an ff or is a para medic needed firsy

A lot of departments are requiring Paramedic now in larger cites, but it is not always required. EMT is almost always required, though. In order to be competitive in a larger department, having your Paramedic would help.

chase1 said:

The levels go from bottom to top: ECA, EMT-B, EMT-I, EMT-P(aramedic).

I think that it would be a great idea if all firefighters were at leaset EMT-B but with volunteer departments requiring this is difficult. ime and money play a big factor in this. If some level of medical were taught at the regular department trainings or, if the departments would sponser members I think it would be a more viable option. It was hard enouogh to get time off, work around family commitments,finance, etc to get FF-2 for me. I am now struggling with trying to fit EMT classes in. I have been lucky enough to do this. Unfortunatley this is not available to everyone who wants to volunteer. The membership needs to be considered and, there is always more to it. Does the department maintain a non-transport license, have regular EMS trainings etc. It would be nice though.

jbeal82 said:

firemanjoe said:

i think an emt cert is unnecesery for a firefighter a firefighter main job is FIREFIGHTING i think we should just keep it optional you would really have a hard time getting vollies to get thier emt we just dont have the time to do it

Except for the fact that as firefighters, anywhere from 75% to 90% of our calls are medical related.

patcav said:

Being an emt definitly has it's advantages and disadvanteges, one of the big disadvantages is adding in-service every month to keep up your cert. It's bad enough being hazmat, rescue and all the other things. On the other side of the coin is this, now days the number of fire calls we are responding to is down, so in order to receive grant funding we need to raise our call volumes. The communtiy seems to expect more and more from us meanwhile we do not receive the support financially we need from them.

has far as volunteers no i don't think they need to be emt but if they pay per call its more call they can run

firemanjoe said:

jbeal82 said:

firemanjoe said:

i think an emt cert is unnecesery for a firefighter a firefighter main job is FIREFIGHTING i think we should just keep it optional you would really have a hard time getting vollies to get thier emt we just dont have the time to do it

Except for the fact that as firefighters, anywhere from 75% to 90% of our calls are medical related.

in this case maybe a mr or fr but emt to me is just unnecesssary i may be wrong but thats just my opinion

OSHA likes everyone to have 1stAid/CPR at least once, and one person on every team to keep it current. This isn't just for hazwoper, it's for any job with hazards, which is every job out there. AED is pretty much a standard part of 1st Aid these days, but i got mine last year and don't remember a damn thing about it from the Red Cross training, even though I know and like the trainer. it just didn't get across. i haven't put it on my résumé because i don't feel comfortable with it, and don't want to pretend i know it...tsmith is right about people padding their certs without the real knowledge. if they'd spent more than 20 minutes on AED i might feel more confident...i think that ought to be a 2-hour class, but we did a 3-day "Train-the-Trainer" 1st Aid/CPR class in one day. i've had 1st Aid and lifesaving since my Boy Scout days, so i'm frosty with that, and CPR off & on for 12 years, but felt i got shortchanged on the AED stuff. btw, there's a new CPR standard called CCR (not Creedence, but cardiocerebral resuscitation, which does 200 compressions and no rescue breaths. big in Arizona right now...i posted it in the News section. check it out).

EVERYBODY should have ops level hazmat, no exceptions. awareness level just tells you when to leave and call somebody else. you will look like a schmuck to the public if that's all you can do. don't do more than you're trained for, but at least get that ops level if not the tech level, because you can at least stop the spill from spreading while you wait for the experts. and with 1st Aid/CPR you can help victims and maybe interview them to get crucial info for the State hazmat guys when they arrive.

I guess we have that once a year a refresher corse on the hazmat deal. forgot that one. its mandatory to have to.

tsmith1 had it right when he said that paid depts. have it eaiser in that they can require a certain level of medical certification and volunteer depts. have to be careful or they may lose personell. I work at a combo dept. (i'm a paid ff) and we (paid) are required to maintain at least an EMT-B level (although) most everyone is at an EMT-I level now. Our volunteers are all required to be at least and ECA level.
All of our paid officers and D/O's are required to be at the HAZ-MAT Tech level.

You can never have to much training!

IF THEY WOULD HELP WITH SOME OF THE PAYING FOR THE CLASS THEN FINE, HOWEVER IF SOME ONE HAS A LOW PAYING JOB AND IS A VOLUNTEER IT CAN BE HARD, NOT BAD TO BE FIREFIGHTER/E.M.T. ITS JUST COMING UP WITH THE MONEY SOME TIME