Nueces County has seen a lot of growth over the past couple of years, and the Corpus Christi Fire Department expects that growth to continue. That is why it are looking to hire more first responders.
Starting now through Jan. 10, you can pick up an application at City Hall or download it from the City of Corpus Christi's website.
This year out of 350 applicants, the Corpus Christi Fire Department will be welcoming close to 50 new members to its firefighting family. Once again, the department is looking for anybody who's up for a challenge, and is motivated to help those in need.
"We are going to hire as many as the city authorizes us to hire," said C.C.F.D. Assistant Fire Chief Doug Matthijetz. "This last process, we did get an increase. We are low in our staffing numbers so the city manager did approve to hire 16 more than what we originally were going to hire."
No prior experience is needed to apply; you just need to be a U.S. citizen and must be between ages 19 and 36.
"We encourage women and minorities to apply for the position; we are always looking to bump up our numbers there," said Matthijetz. "We have several women in the fire department already. The culture is changing so go ahead and apply."
The hiring process is a very long one. Firefighters have to take a written examination, physical agility test, and an oral interview before they are selected.
"The time frame takes almost a year from the test til the actual hiring date," said Matthijetz.
Their preparation includes 1,728 training hours for EMT/Paramedic, 720 hours of fire training, and 240 hours in protocol review, to go along with many hours of community service projects.
"The standards of the Corpus Christi Fire Department are very high, and our expectation of our employees are to provide exceptional service to the citizens of Corpus Christi," said Matthijetz.
Once they are selected, they go to the fire academy which is located at the Del Mar College West campus.
The Corpus Christi Fire Department will host an informational recruitment meeting at 6 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Del Mar College-West Campus Public Safety building at 4101 Old Brownsville Rd. This meeting will cover everything regarding the hiring process, and answer any questions on how to become a Del Mar College student.
For more information visit: http://www.cctexas.com/fire-department
