The Carroll County Department of Fire & Emergency Medical Services (CCDFEMS) is the county government department responsible for overseeing Carroll County, Maryland’s combination career/volunteer fire and EMS system.
If anyone would consider working here, I would implore you to seek any other employment. Carroll County may be a “Department”, but it is anything but. It is rather new, being started almost 4 years ago, hiring staffing to cover 13 volunteer fire stations (They wouldn’t staff the 14th station since they didn’t own an ambulance). It has about 220 employees on 4 shifts. A 24/72 schedule, which is the only benefit. Per shift, there are 16 FF/EMTs, 16 Paramedics (Don’t need to be FF-qualified), 13 Fire Apparatus Driver/Operators, 3 Fire Lieutenants, 3 EMS Lieutenants, and 1 Battalion Chief. The EMTs and Medics are assigned to ambulances, Lieutenants are paired with FADOS in the 3 stations they work in, FADOs drive whatever piece the volunteers want out first. The EMS Lieutenants are just Paramedic Supervisors. As you can tell, there are no firefighters on fire trucks, other than the drivers and 3 stations with Lieutenants. Most systems the ambulance can supplement staffing when volunteers are not present (Which is about 50 percent of suppression responses). The first due ambulance can downstaff and ride the fire truck for their first due area only. So to put it in perspective, a house fire with 4+ people trapped that occurs when the ambulance is on a call, there is no fire staffing and no exception to this policy. It is not uncommon for a house fire response to require 10+ Engines and 4+ Trucks/Rescue Squads. There is virtually no training (Beyond EMS nonsense) and no expectation to ever buck up and be a firefighter, no matter what is at risk. Your average employee, if they are lucky, might don turnout gear 4 times per year. There is no academy, they hire pre-trained employees, and it shows amongst the performance of the staff. Holdovers are frequent, and it is almost all EMS-based. Their IAFF has made no effort to increase safe staffing, decrease holdovers, and normally justify what the “Fire Chief” says as being necessary. If you are looking to work here, just go through an academy and work for any other jurisdiction in the area that doesn’t essentially call itself a fire department but not let their “firefighters” ight fire: Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s. If you want to do EMS-only and clean volunteer firehouses, this is definitely for you. The benefits: Pay is ok, but no step increases, only a COLA each year. 24/72, and the stations are very slow so there is a lot of down time.
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If anyone would consider working here, I would implore you to seek any other employment. Carroll County may be a “Department”, but it is anything but. It is rather new, being started almost 4 years ago, hiring staffing to cover 13 volunteer fire stations (They wouldn’t staff the 14th station since they didn’t own an ambulance). It has about 220 employees on 4 shifts. A 24/72 schedule, which is the only benefit. Per shift, there are 16 FF/EMTs, 16 Paramedics (Don’t need to be FF-qualified), 13 Fire Apparatus Driver/Operators, 3 Fire Lieutenants, 3 EMS Lieutenants, and 1 Battalion Chief. The EMTs and Medics are assigned to ambulances, Lieutenants are paired with FADOS in the 3 stations they work in, FADOs drive whatever piece the volunteers want out first. The EMS Lieutenants are just Paramedic Supervisors. As you can tell, there are no firefighters on fire trucks, other than the drivers and 3 stations with Lieutenants. Most systems the ambulance can supplement staffing when volunteers are not present (Which is about 50 percent of suppression responses). The first due ambulance can downstaff and ride the fire truck for their first due area only. So to put it in perspective, a house fire with 4+ people trapped that occurs when the ambulance is on a call, there is no fire staffing and no exception to this policy. It is not uncommon for a house fire response to require 10+ Engines and 4+ Trucks/Rescue Squads. There is virtually no training (Beyond EMS nonsense) and no expectation to ever buck up and be a firefighter, no matter what is at risk. Your average employee, if they are lucky, might don turnout gear 4 times per year. There is no academy, they hire pre-trained employees, and it shows amongst the performance of the staff. Holdovers are frequent, and it is almost all EMS-based. Their IAFF has made no effort to increase safe staffing, decrease holdovers, and normally justify what the “Fire Chief” says as being necessary. If you are looking to work here, just go through an academy and work for any other jurisdiction in the area that doesn’t essentially call itself a fire department but not let their “firefighters” ight fire: Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s. If you want to do EMS-only and clean volunteer firehouses, this is definitely for you. The benefits: Pay is ok, but no step increases, only a COLA each year. 24/72, and the stations are very slow so there is a lot of down time.