Junior Fire Departments

[hfdjuniorbezant]

Originally Posted by Michael13

One question- If you have had a memeber since they were 14 and they are hired when they turn 18 is a probationary period still nessicary???

we have a junior program in our fire department and i went through it for a bit before i turned 19 and got voted in as a regular firefighter. i am in the probationary period for one year. i'm not 100% sure if there really is a reason for doing the probationary period if you were a junior but i don't really care.

[DCCHam]

We have a guy with our dept. now that came to us (a little under a year ago) from another dept. where he held the rank of D/C and a was a member for 14 years. He made Captain with us the first of the year, which means he's really a red-hat that is still on probation.

[hfdfirejr]

i think the probationay period is a great thing ...its a transition to the full member and you gain expirence..and i also think the period could be extended if the officers dont feel the person is preforming how they should. This is a great time to see how the person is going to handel them selves.
expirence can be held back to a certin point but it cant be placed on the back burner if it is something that will help the fire scene

[mutts252]

Originally Posted by hfdfirejr

i think the probationay period is a great thing ...its a transition to the full member and you gain expirence..and i also think the period could be extended if the officers dont feel the person is preforming how they should. This is a great time to see how the person is going to handel them selves.
expirence can be held back to a certin point but it cant be placed on the back burner if it is something that will help the fire scene

agree 110% ... especially the option to extend the probationary period a little bit, just to get that extra bit of comfort (for the officers and rest of the dept., that is)

[Josh00]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael13
One question- If you have had a memeber since they were 14 and they are hired when they turn 18 is a probationary period still nessicary???

Anyone new to the department should have atleast a months probation and have to attend a few practices as well as have an orientation to the departments SOPs SOGs etc and to how all the equipment works.

And I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again. Jr programs are a very good idea. I started in one when I was 16, and I'm 18 and have 8/12 NFPA 1001 courses from the alberta fire school (fire etc) as well as I'm an EMR.

[DementedGreg_87]

My Department runs a junior program, currently we only have 2-3 members under 18. When I joined the majority of my Department was juniors though (myself included, I was 16), in total there were 9-12 of us on a department, ages raging from 14-17. Juniors were the majority back then, it actaully saved the departments ass at the time, as we were allowed to respond to calls, even from school =P. Which gave us a good laugh to see the expressions on teachers faces when student after student ran by out of the blue with pagers/ radios going off. Its a great program especailly if they stay with the dept once they reach the age of 18.