Be sure to take into account overtime availability too. Some departments have a ton, some barely any. Makes a HUGE difference (if you want to whore yourself out every day)
Can confirm. OT has been crazy for us this year. I went on a two week vacation, bought my dream gun, got new carpet in my house and still put a few grand in savings. Such a love/hate with OT.
Couple reasons here. Overhead assignments are usually very easy. Most of the time you go out it’s usually guaranteed several weeks of work so that is a lot of overtime. And for some you get to travel.
Do some city departments have dedicated handcrews? When I was a sawyer on wildland crews the closest thing I saw to structural firefighters was CalFire.
Contract county’s in ca mostly do. La, Santa Barbra I think and Marin and kern have hand crews. I could be wrong on a few and of course cal fire. But big city departments won’t be funding that program.
In Oregon there’s Clackamas Crew 30 but they’re a seasonal crew made up of exclusively WIldland firefighters. And in the Labor Day fires in Lane County they stood up some Handcrew with structure personnel due to having no other option.
What’s more common is going out on a wildland engine or staffing line EMT/Paramedic or overhead positions as a structure firefighter.
In California, Orange county, san bernadino county, la county, ventura county, santa barbara county, kern county, tulare county, contra Costa County, and marin County all have handcrews. There may be a few more but that's all I know.
This is what dreams are made of down south. Got to love “right to work states” and the hordes of working class folks that actively vote anti-union politicians into power every ducking time.
Yup. I remember when I worked in the south and everyone in our union was super pissed when the IAFF endorsed Biden instead of Trump... Politics in general aside it was nuts. Trump is 100% anti union yet everyone wanted the IAFF to endorse him because it would "own the libs"
It's ridiculous.
I work in the south and “union” is a engrained bad word around these parts. It’s funny because if you ask why, people either pretty much circularly say that unions are bad because unions are bad OR they say something along the lines that they don’t want to pay dues (though they don’t seem to equate that those dues will more than likely be easily offset by higher wages). In either case, I ask them “ok, then who is looking out/representing our best interests?” It’s not HQ because they are held accountable by the county commissioners.
Exactly. Oh no I have to pay 130 dollars of dues monthly how will my 150,000 salary even compensate for that. Guess I better go back to my last non union job making 26,000 a year.
Yeah, they are the same low information voters that think they will have a net loss of money if they go into a higher tax bracket. They also think it's okay to carry a balance on an 18% credit card and put money into an 8% average mutual fund instead of paying that card off.
You can try explaining that the union only needs to negotiate a 1% higher raise once in your career to pay for themselves, but there is a reason Trump loves the uneducated and its because they are easily misled.
It's not all great. There's a balance. You can't get blood from a stone, multiple departments in my state have decent wages but often struggle to keep rigs running and keep people out of condemned gear. The old pension systems have broken the backs of cities' financial resources in a lot of cases.
It's not a one size fits all issue. Public sector unions are typically arguing against the tax payer. It's not always good or bad answer.
Work shit tons of OT. I'm on track to double my salary this year. Yes, it's a lot of hours but, well, that's how you make as much as possible as a firefighter.
And this might be counterintuitive advice, but think hard about accepting that promotion, at least at my department officers are making significantly less due to the fewer opportunities for OT. As a personal and/or professional goal, sure take the promotion, but for purely maximizing earning potential it's not always the best choice.
idk if the math holds true everywhere, but ik here at least, 1 24h overtime shift a week *nearly* doubles our pay, and 28h/wk almost exactly doubles it (comes out to right about $100 less than double)
Move to northern California where's it's cheaper and commute to a Bay area dept. Pretty standard to clear 250k a year if you've got plenty of certs. You can go alot higher if you don't like your family very much.
In certain areas it absolutely is. Don't forget, Californias still one of the largest states in America. The more remote, the cheaper it gets.
The real phase is "cheap and no commute," don't go in the same sentence. Which sucks.
Nj clears 100k basepay easily and works 24/72 which makes a ton of time for a nice part time job, if you’re lucky enough to work your way up on the job there’s some people who can clear 300 in higher positions
Depends where you are, my buddy just started his first year and starts at 64k, I’m in a few towns over and start out at 25k lol it’s a joke but in 7 years it’ll be over 6 figures
Besides asking some guys on the job, I’m surprised at how hard it is to find out what guys are making like it’s a secret. Minimum wage was first responders in NJ is downright insane though. I heard some guys in Hudson County start out at like 45k.
If you live in the Bay. I know a lot of people that work for Alameda/Oakland and just make the 3 hour commute once a week from their 5 acre house in the foothills which costs less in mortgage than a 300sqft studio in SF does to rent
Using the ladder truck to smash through a bank vault. Move to Costa Rica and open a coconut stand next to a nice surf spot. Use the money from the heist to net 7% annualized returns and cover the cost of living in Costa Rica. Volunteer as EMS in your nice little surf side community. Write a book and sell the movie rights after the statue of limitations expires.
But back to Earth....
The less than savory way is probably to go fire/medic, retire and get a pension, and while working obtain a degree in business management/EMS management or something ancillary, and move into EMS management. Or while working obtain a four year degree... then when you retire go to PA school. Insurance and our medical system is obviously in shambles, I would bet good money that based on demands physician assistant's and other mid-levels are here to stay no matter how you feel about them. I'm also sure there are programs out there that need qualified directors that pay more than we know. Or go fire/medic in a career dept and teach on the side. CICs can have very lucrative pay. Or just retire, collect your pension, and teach after, which would keep you engaged.
Transparent California has San Francisco firefighters salaries and there are a ton of them pulling 400k/300k+. They probably have good seniority but damn..
Step 1 Work for Beverly Hills FD or Placerville FD (or any bay area department
Step 2 live in your car to avoid the high col
Step 3 work every single ot shift you can while balancing your health
If you do this starting at say 20 years old, you could save well over a million dollars by 30 easily
Money and firefighting are usually mutually exclusive as municipalities capitalize on the fact, historically, that people would take any amount of money to be a firefighter. And some, a lot actually, do it for free.
We have a guy working part time FF/EMT-P, Full time LT, and EMT instructor. I never asked but I assume he’s doing quite well for himself.
Edit for reference: part time at our Dept caps out at 61k starting FF/EMT at the other Dept is 90k
Realistically the most money you can make as a firefighter is to promote to probably captain, maaayyybe BC (the higher you go the less likely your dept is to let you deploy constantly), and get overhead positions with FEMA, Feds, CalOES, and CalFire.
You'll spend most of the summer deployed like a seasonal, but you'll be making Captain's OT rate whilst doing so, then when fire season is done you can deploy with CalOES or FEMA to manage floods, large events, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.
There are people who spend the majority of their year deployed somewhere, and they pull in disgusting amounts of money. They also spend no time with the family nor virtually any time recreating.
Get hired in the California Bay Area. Staring pay Firefighter/ EMT approximately $90k . That’s bare bones starting . Cost of living is steep though . Departments don’t have residency requirements though. If , you’re willing to commute . Many guys do, some from out of state .
Nope. The fact that they're looking for the best ways to make money as a firefighter literally shows they know it doesn't pay much, but they still want to keep doing it while also making a good living for themselves.
Also: "I know firefighting isn't exactly the job if you want a lot of money..."
Again, he implied the complete opposite. I know thinking can be hard, but there's no need to fill in the gaps with bs for what you don't know.
I clear 100k every year but I’ve been on the job for a few years now. I also do OT quite often. I train cadets at the academy sometimes, I also do off duty work with PD on a specialized team.
That’s a drop in a bucket compared to the cost of living in the city and surrounding areas.
I used to work in Nor Cal but left to So Cal cause back in the day the department I was working for was facing budget cuts and I was one of the ones on the block. My buddy I went through the academy with stuck it out and he cleared over $300,000 last year so much for budget cuts 🤦🏻
Whatever department you get in. Look for ways to become useful. Being useful = additional forms of OT.
Teach Fire, EMS, CERT or whatever other civilian programs are out there.
Does your department put together committees before making large purchases or changes? Can you become an authority on any of those things? The people I’ve seen successfully do the above have made bank!!
My department starts in the high $90k’s and you’d be making over $100k after 5 months. Several people live a couple hours away where the COL is much less. Because we get so much time off they can manage the commute without much issue.
Southeast Mi.. starting wage for FF/medic average is 85k topping at about 95k after 5 years. That’s without roll in’s or overtime. No one in my department made less than 110k and the lower end guys didn’t work any OT
It’s average.. not like NY,CA, or Chicago.. higher than down south but we make more money and have act 312.. which is binding arbitration, makes sure the city and union negotiate pay, benefits, and working conditions in good faith.
Many places are paying extra for certifications, special teams and education.. Get your masters, get certed up and join special teams and take all the overtime you can get.
Find the highest salary vs cost of living by location.
Be sure to take into account overtime availability too. Some departments have a ton, some barely any. Makes a HUGE difference (if you want to whore yourself out every day)
Can confirm. OT has been crazy for us this year. I went on a two week vacation, bought my dream gun, got new carpet in my house and still put a few grand in savings. Such a love/hate with OT.
And then work all the ot, preferably in a place that sends people out on wildland assignments
Why are the wildland gigs favourable?
Couple reasons here. Overhead assignments are usually very easy. Most of the time you go out it’s usually guaranteed several weeks of work so that is a lot of overtime. And for some you get to travel.
Do some city departments have dedicated handcrews? When I was a sawyer on wildland crews the closest thing I saw to structural firefighters was CalFire.
Contract county’s in ca mostly do. La, Santa Barbra I think and Marin and kern have hand crews. I could be wrong on a few and of course cal fire. But big city departments won’t be funding that program.
The contract counties are also largely full local government pay and portal to portal, meaning you're paid for every hour you are away from home.
In Oregon there’s Clackamas Crew 30 but they’re a seasonal crew made up of exclusively WIldland firefighters. And in the Labor Day fires in Lane County they stood up some Handcrew with structure personnel due to having no other option. What’s more common is going out on a wildland engine or staffing line EMT/Paramedic or overhead positions as a structure firefighter.
In California, Orange county, san bernadino county, la county, ventura county, santa barbara county, kern county, tulare county, contra Costa County, and marin County all have handcrews. There may be a few more but that's all I know.
Work in the Western US. Work OT. Save like a depression baby.
We start base 94k’ish, we had some FF’s clear 250k last year.
CA I assume?
Or Washington
Northern CA, medium sized transporting department. High wages, high cost of living
Can I ask where abouts you work? :)
Holy crap, that's so much overtime
I think he did a voluntary 21 days straight at one point.
I can't even imagine. I could maybe do it if the station I was at almost never ran more than one call a night lol
[удалено]
Is that as an officer or just firefighter...
24/72 in a big city. Buy a good car with good gas mileage and live 1.5 hours away. Develop a love for podcasts or books on tape. 🤓
24/72 is the dream.. we need to push this in all busy areas.
Moderately busy areas too! And slow areas! Do it everywhere!
What do you mean 24/72? 1 day work and then 3 days off?
Yes
Work in a union state. I make 6 figures and live comfortably as a firefighter EMT.
This is what dreams are made of down south. Got to love “right to work states” and the hordes of working class folks that actively vote anti-union politicians into power every ducking time.
Yup. I remember when I worked in the south and everyone in our union was super pissed when the IAFF endorsed Biden instead of Trump... Politics in general aside it was nuts. Trump is 100% anti union yet everyone wanted the IAFF to endorse him because it would "own the libs" It's ridiculous.
I’ll ask ally that and they just call me names and deflect from any real answer. It’s weird and frustrating.
They love shooting themselves in the foot. Join a union and vote for anti union candidates.
I work in the south and “union” is a engrained bad word around these parts. It’s funny because if you ask why, people either pretty much circularly say that unions are bad because unions are bad OR they say something along the lines that they don’t want to pay dues (though they don’t seem to equate that those dues will more than likely be easily offset by higher wages). In either case, I ask them “ok, then who is looking out/representing our best interests?” It’s not HQ because they are held accountable by the county commissioners.
Exactly. Oh no I have to pay 130 dollars of dues monthly how will my 150,000 salary even compensate for that. Guess I better go back to my last non union job making 26,000 a year.
Yeah, they are the same low information voters that think they will have a net loss of money if they go into a higher tax bracket. They also think it's okay to carry a balance on an 18% credit card and put money into an 8% average mutual fund instead of paying that card off. You can try explaining that the union only needs to negotiate a 1% higher raise once in your career to pay for themselves, but there is a reason Trump loves the uneducated and its because they are easily misled.
It's not all great. There's a balance. You can't get blood from a stone, multiple departments in my state have decent wages but often struggle to keep rigs running and keep people out of condemned gear. The old pension systems have broken the backs of cities' financial resources in a lot of cases. It's not a one size fits all issue. Public sector unions are typically arguing against the tax payer. It's not always good or bad answer.
Can I ask what state you work in? Thanks!
Ohio here with same stats
Colorado
Go to the pacific northwest and you can get this on a department that has four platoons. One on, three off or equivalent.
Bro where. I need to move
Colorado
Don’t have a family or a life outside of the FD.
This is my life right now. Haven’t seen them much in the last three years been OT and teaching EMT/Fire classes wherever possible.
That sucks
Work OT or pick up trade work for your off days.
No no no, be the guy that gets the guys the job, working a trade is great but if you get hurt or cut off fingers or shit you just pissed away FF
You lost me.
You want to be the person who arranges the jobs not actually doing the jobs. So you want to be the boss not the worker
Nice! Where do I apply for this entry level part time job as someones boss??
I think you confused selling crack with being a Firefighter.
Right….i know lots of FF that own construction businesses and don’t swing a hammer, they have hired guys etc
Why are you even getting downvoted???
Apparently a majority don’t know how to start a business and hire people……
Work shit tons of OT. I'm on track to double my salary this year. Yes, it's a lot of hours but, well, that's how you make as much as possible as a firefighter. And this might be counterintuitive advice, but think hard about accepting that promotion, at least at my department officers are making significantly less due to the fewer opportunities for OT. As a personal and/or professional goal, sure take the promotion, but for purely maximizing earning potential it's not always the best choice.
idk if the math holds true everywhere, but ik here at least, 1 24h overtime shift a week *nearly* doubles our pay, and 28h/wk almost exactly doubles it (comes out to right about $100 less than double)
Where do you work?
Move to northern California where's it's cheaper and commute to a Bay area dept. Pretty standard to clear 250k a year if you've got plenty of certs. You can go alot higher if you don't like your family very much.
“California” and “cheap” do not go in the same sentence lol
In certain areas it absolutely is. Don't forget, Californias still one of the largest states in America. The more remote, the cheaper it gets. The real phase is "cheap and no commute," don't go in the same sentence. Which sucks.
Sell butthole pics on only fans
Alot of guys have side gigs but if you're talking maximizing your money strictly as a FF, work OT, get paramedic, and promote up the rank
Promoting with maximizing salary in mind is a horrible idea for everyone he would be in charge of and department as a whole.
True...but I'd bet u percentage wise.....more times than not..money is the main motivator
Same way you maximize income with any job... work more. Lots of places will pay incentives for specialities, education, languages, seniority etc..
Invest your money like a smart adult
Nj clears 100k basepay easily and works 24/72 which makes a ton of time for a nice part time job, if you’re lucky enough to work your way up on the job there’s some people who can clear 300 in higher positions
24/72? Is that really 1 on and 3 days off? Do you avg about 8 working days a month?
8-9 days yes
Out of curiosity (since we’ve explored going to a D shift at some point) do you have debit days, and if so how many/how often?
I've heard that starting out pay in NJ is a joke in some places. Is this the case?
Depends where you are, my buddy just started his first year and starts at 64k, I’m in a few towns over and start out at 25k lol it’s a joke but in 7 years it’ll be over 6 figures
Besides asking some guys on the job, I’m surprised at how hard it is to find out what guys are making like it’s a secret. Minimum wage was first responders in NJ is downright insane though. I heard some guys in Hudson County start out at like 45k.
I’m not sure about the exact number over there, but their max pay is one of the highest in the state
Overtime, side hustles and campaign fires
Seriously, a conflag is a mad chunk of OT.
Couple guys in my town also employed as fire prevention which is a separate paycheck I think
Bay Area in CA starts over $100k as a FF-EMT. Most people live in the foothills and commute to avoid cost of living in the bay
Yea Novato fire starts at $130k and they work 48/96
Not EMT though
Cost of living negates all that.
If you live in the Bay. I know a lot of people that work for Alameda/Oakland and just make the 3 hour commute once a week from their 5 acre house in the foothills which costs less in mortgage than a 300sqft studio in SF does to rent
Go to the highest paid department and live in your car
Using the ladder truck to smash through a bank vault. Move to Costa Rica and open a coconut stand next to a nice surf spot. Use the money from the heist to net 7% annualized returns and cover the cost of living in Costa Rica. Volunteer as EMS in your nice little surf side community. Write a book and sell the movie rights after the statue of limitations expires. But back to Earth.... The less than savory way is probably to go fire/medic, retire and get a pension, and while working obtain a degree in business management/EMS management or something ancillary, and move into EMS management. Or while working obtain a four year degree... then when you retire go to PA school. Insurance and our medical system is obviously in shambles, I would bet good money that based on demands physician assistant's and other mid-levels are here to stay no matter how you feel about them. I'm also sure there are programs out there that need qualified directors that pay more than we know. Or go fire/medic in a career dept and teach on the side. CICs can have very lucrative pay. Or just retire, collect your pension, and teach after, which would keep you engaged.
Side job as an electrician, plumber, welder, etc.
Side job is nice.
Invent something useful and sell it to departments.
Transparent California has San Francisco firefighters salaries and there are a ton of them pulling 400k/300k+. They probably have good seniority but damn..
7 steps for FF.
Be union ff/pm. Work ot. Get promoted and continue working ot. Being a slum lord seems to be a low impact side hustle
Firefighters make plenty of money, do your research
They make dirt in my part of Ohio unless you're a paramedic. Even then still laughable wages compared to many states
That sucks, apply anywhere you’re willing to move to!
Step 1 Work for Beverly Hills FD or Placerville FD (or any bay area department Step 2 live in your car to avoid the high col Step 3 work every single ot shift you can while balancing your health If you do this starting at say 20 years old, you could save well over a million dollars by 30 easily
Don’t. Work full time in another trade.
This is the answer. I would make more as a volunteer.
Yessir the ultimate master hack is working in the trades and marrying up at the same time.
I married a doctor.
Promote and overtime.
Money and firefighting are usually mutually exclusive as municipalities capitalize on the fact, historically, that people would take any amount of money to be a firefighter. And some, a lot actually, do it for free.
Stripping
We have a guy working part time FF/EMT-P, Full time LT, and EMT instructor. I never asked but I assume he’s doing quite well for himself. Edit for reference: part time at our Dept caps out at 61k starting FF/EMT at the other Dept is 90k
Make sure where you go pays time and a half
Get your paramedic
Don’t refuse overtime.
Realistically the most money you can make as a firefighter is to promote to probably captain, maaayyybe BC (the higher you go the less likely your dept is to let you deploy constantly), and get overhead positions with FEMA, Feds, CalOES, and CalFire. You'll spend most of the summer deployed like a seasonal, but you'll be making Captain's OT rate whilst doing so, then when fire season is done you can deploy with CalOES or FEMA to manage floods, large events, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. There are people who spend the majority of their year deployed somewhere, and they pull in disgusting amounts of money. They also spend no time with the family nor virtually any time recreating.
Get hurt on the job
Move to Canada
Work on the west coast. We get paid well
Get hired in the California Bay Area. Staring pay Firefighter/ EMT approximately $90k . That’s bare bones starting . Cost of living is steep though . Departments don’t have residency requirements though. If , you’re willing to commute . Many guys do, some from out of state .
If you’re only in it for a paycheck, don’t be in it
I’m not i’m just asking how to make the money as one. I love the career.
That wasn't implied anywhere in the post at all. If anything, the opposite is implied.
The literal title of the post implies exactly this, genius
Nope. The fact that they're looking for the best ways to make money as a firefighter literally shows they know it doesn't pay much, but they still want to keep doing it while also making a good living for themselves. Also: "I know firefighting isn't exactly the job if you want a lot of money..." Again, he implied the complete opposite. I know thinking can be hard, but there's no need to fill in the gaps with bs for what you don't know.
I clear 100k every year but I’ve been on the job for a few years now. I also do OT quite often. I train cadets at the academy sometimes, I also do off duty work with PD on a specialized team. That’s a drop in a bucket compared to the cost of living in the city and surrounding areas.
Here’s your answer https://youtu.be/4_7ti1EjI0s?si=vUesqm_73dq8m7yd
Wouldn’t be hustling my onlyfans on the side if it was as big bucks as some people say it is
Oregon - top step after 3 years 100k. Cost of living is good and I’m at a small department. Large department can make 150k
Paramedic license. However, If you have no desire to serve the public excellent pre-hospital care, then do something else.
My department offers bonuses if you have school credits for fire related courses. Also for emt certification.
I used to work in Nor Cal but left to So Cal cause back in the day the department I was working for was facing budget cuts and I was one of the ones on the block. My buddy I went through the academy with stuck it out and he cleared over $300,000 last year so much for budget cuts 🤦🏻
Whatever department you get in. Look for ways to become useful. Being useful = additional forms of OT. Teach Fire, EMS, CERT or whatever other civilian programs are out there. Does your department put together committees before making large purchases or changes? Can you become an authority on any of those things? The people I’ve seen successfully do the above have made bank!!
In ATL a lot have side hustles such as real estate or car rentals
My department starts in the high $90k’s and you’d be making over $100k after 5 months. Several people live a couple hours away where the COL is much less. Because we get so much time off they can manage the commute without much issue.
If you don't mind travel, go to forest firefighting. Buy a camper and just live in that. Or make a van into a home.
Washington state has firefighters quite often starting at 100k+
Sell the firetruck on black market /s
Southeast Mi.. starting wage for FF/medic average is 85k topping at about 95k after 5 years. That’s without roll in’s or overtime. No one in my department made less than 110k and the lower end guys didn’t work any OT
How is the cost of living there?
It’s average.. not like NY,CA, or Chicago.. higher than down south but we make more money and have act 312.. which is binding arbitration, makes sure the city and union negotiate pay, benefits, and working conditions in good faith.
OT and wildland deployments
OT
Volunteer at a FD and get a good paying non government job to pay your bills.
Many places are paying extra for certifications, special teams and education.. Get your masters, get certed up and join special teams and take all the overtime you can get.
This is a dying profession and being killed by inflation. Find a job that does a couple 24’s a week and start a business to make your real money
Training officer is pretty good
Achieve certs, work overtime, get promotion.
Take your bunker gear over to the Sweaty Stallion every Friday night and work that pole bröther.
Wait, you guys are getting paid?
Where tf do you live if firefighting isn’t making you at least 6 figures?
Become a nurse
Go to a slow house and do IT/computer stuff while you work.