DC Paramedic/Firefighter

[Fireguy]

Does anyone here have any information on being a dual role Paramedic/Firefighter for the District of Columbia? Do they just ride the engines or do they staff the ambulance as well? I heard someone say that they work in rotations from the engine to ambulance, any truth in that? I have already checked out the official webpage but I didn't find alot of information. Thank you for any input.

 

[Fireguy]

Oh, just wanted to clarify this! I know they are cross TRAINING but I was wondering how they work.

 

[Ridryder911]

You should be able to find plenty of information as they have been in the news. Hopefully, they have started cleaning up their mess....

R/r 911

 

[frdude1000]

You do not want to work for dcfd. their rep is awful. Their ff/paramedic starting salary is $ 45,055. If you come over a couple of miles to montgomery county, md, bordering dc, a nice suburban area. Their ff/emt starting salary is 43,000. Their paramedic ff salary is probably higher.

 

[EastcoastFF]

I'm a DC firefighter/paramedic. We are assigned to Engines and get off to transport ALS patients if the ambulance responding is BLS. There is alot of haterd to the firefighter/paramedics from alot most fire personnel because we dont have to ride the ambulance. I'd say look somewhere else. Richmond is hiring and fairfax county. Fairfax treats there medics good and there starting salary is about $6,000 a year more and they have more stations than us.

 

[46Young]

I'm on at Fairfax. We still haven't stopped hiring medics yet, even with all of this budget hysteria. You'll start at 53,887/yr (two steps above a basic FF) for the academy. It lasts approx. 9 months. About 6 weeks of alphabet cards and other EMS stuff, a 16 week field internship on an ALS rig, then the suppression portion. After graduation, you'll get 182.59/pay period in cert pay (maybe more now), $2/hr to ride as engine medic, $3/hr to ride the medic. That's about $63,000/yr or so to start, at least. It's not hard to make $80,000 or more your first year with callback (OT).

Highly recommended to apply here. DC has a better schedule, though. We have 24's as such: WOWOWOOOO. Benefits out the ying yang, 25 and out pension, three year DROP.

I haven't seen much if any animosity towards medics here. Everybody's cool as :censored:

Gyms in almost every station, too.

Get on it!

 

[EastcoastFF]

I didnt even know you guys made that much more than us in DC. I feel ripped off lol. Well The DC firefighter/paramedic starting pay is $48,731 and they are advertising a $7000 signing bonus that actually only amounts to about $4500 after taxes and you have to sign a 2 year contract. Also we just hired some medics and everybody hadnt received there bonus pay so i dont know about that. Oh and we dont get any bonus pay for riding anything or any bonus cert pay. I'd have to say Fairfax is better.

 

[46Young]

DC works something like a 24/72, correct? Our schedule is a variant of a 24/48, no kellys, so it's a 56 hour workweek, on average. We work more hours, so the pay is understandably greater.

The gov't is bouncing checks on bonus pay? Times are rough indeed.

I'm dying to get a chance to go through your maze and flashover simulator.

So they make you guys fill PG as much as we do?

 

[EastcoastFF]

Yeah we work a 24/72 hour shift. It amounts to a 42 hour work week but if we work overtime we dont get time and half unless we have more than 212 hours in a 28 day flsa cycle. We also do "watch" at night because we have no phones on the outside of the stations for drive up emergencies if everyone in the firehouse is sleep or whatever. That kind of sucks but whatever it's just how it goes i guess.

No the city isnt bouncing checks its just some people havent received their checks.

The Flashover simulator is pretty good we get it pretty hot in there but the maze is kind of like whatever.

Oh and we are finally getting a class burn building which is being built right now. No we dont fill PG that often its rare. It's also the same with receiving mutual aid we only do it if its an absolute must.

 

[Seaglass]

OP: if you're also looking at other county FDs in the area, PM me.

Other than that, I'd second the other opinions in the Fairfax vs. DC debate.

 

[46Young]

One thing's for sure though, if you're into fire then DC definitely holds the advantage there. For pay and benefits, I'd have to go with Fairfax.

 

[alpha514]

looking for info on DC Fire

Hey East Coast FF - Got some questions about DC. In a department now facing layoffs. I'd like to be busier too, so DC seems like it'd be a good option. I wanted to talk to someone more about it though before i leave what i have so i know what i'm getting into. I'm really into the fires, EMS is more just part of the job for me. But i'm ok with the added EMS if it means more fires. I'm taking my paramedic right now to make myself more marketable. Can you email me at alpha514@aol.com? Thanks.