Become A Firefighter

Become A Firefighter

List of Events to become a Firefighter with most Civil Service & Paid Departments.

18 years to 35 years of age

Make Application to city of Choice (Personnel dept.)

Clean Record (no Felonies)

Good Driving record (less than three moving violations / 3-5 yrs)

Civil Service Exam 70% or higher (5 extra points for Military)

Exam given by City that is hiring, usually once a year, call or watch news paper.

Some departments require that applicant be “Certified” through the Texas Commission on Fire Protection prior to applying.

(See list of Fire Schools) 478 hrs training by a certified facility and ECA or higher cert. with TDH. And pass the State Fire Exam Written and Skills.

Some departments have an open application policy and will hire you first and then send you to Fire School. Others require the certification and then still send you to “their” fire school.

Still others require a Fire Commission Certification and a Paramedic Level TDH.

By the rules that govern Civil Service, certification is not an issue, because an applicant's exam score is the only factor that is taken into consideration during this phase of the hiring process.

Once The applicant passes the exam, and depending on how many “openings” the department has, the top 25% are chosen as possible “new hires” and will advance to the next phase of the hiring process. As new openings arise the next 25% are contacted to continue on. This is done as many times as necessary to fill the positions until the “test list” is exhausted or one (1) year elapses, which ever comes first. (The test list is only good for one year regardless).

For the City of Palestine there are a series of “screenings” that must be passed, (failure of any one of these will disqualify applicant) they are as follows:

Civil Service Exam 70% or higher

Physical Agility Test (pass)

Oral interview (Ad min staff)

Chief's interview

Mental evaluation by Dr. of Psychology

Physical exam by Dr. MD, & drug screen

Background check through Department of Public Safety

Driving record (DPS)

Polygraph examination

One year Probation period

If you are not Certified we will hire you and then send you to the next available Fire School at the City's expense, you have one year (from date of hire) to get your ECA EMT or higher and complete your certification with the State.

If you are already Certified through the Commission you will go right to a Shift on duty.

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