Putnam County Fire Department Hiring 3 Full Time Firefighters

Putnam County Fire Department hiring three full time firefighters for western coverage working out of Station 31.

Public Information Officer Drew Swink said the department was approved for the additional staff. He said currently they currently relied on volunteers in the evening hours.

“Our department was built on volunteers and still highly relies on volunteers,” Swink said. “As we only have so many paying positions. But it will just offer that portion of the county an immediate response.”

Swink said the station is staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  but there is no one at the station at night to deploy with the fire truck in response to a call. Swink said volunteers have to drive to the station to get the fire truck which extends call response time.

Swink said the current timeline calls for hiring three firefighters by September 15.

“There’ll be somebody there 24 hours a day. While the volunteers will still respond in conjunction with,” Swink said. “It gets one truck immediately rolling.

Swink said sometimes it is a challenge to find firefighters, but he feels like there has always been a shortage. He said the challenge is not necessarily finding interested people but finding qualified applicants.

Swink said Putnam County Fire Department requires applicants to be 21 years or older, have a high school education or equivalent, a valid Tennessee drivers license that has not been revoked within the past 24 months, and be a Tennessee resident. He said training and certification requirements include Basic Firefighting and Live Burn portions of the Tennessee Fire Codes Academy,  an IFSAC Proboard or Tennessee Firefighting Commission Firefighter 1 Certification and a Tennessee Emergency Medical Responder or higher medical license at time of hire.

“If they are just waiting for a medical license to post, say they’ve already passed and it just has to post on the state web site, that might be something they take into consideration if they have everything else,” Swink said. “That’ll be up to the interview panel board.”

Swink said the department is hiring part-time firefighters as well. He said that starts out at $16 per hour but you are no guaranteed any particular hours.

“If you are hired as a full-time firefighter, that starts at $40,000 a year,” Swink said. “And that information is available on the state website.”