Firefighter Trainee

Firefighter Trainee

Salary: $53,295.00 Annually Location: Portsmouth, VA Job Type: Full-Time Regular Job Number: FY2025-01324 Department: Fire, Rescue & Emergency Services Opening Date: 03/27/2026 Closing Date: 5/1/2026 11:59 PM Eastern

Description

Benefits Questions

General Statement of the Job & Essential Functions

GENERAL STATEMENT OF JOB Under general supervision, this position protects the lives and the property of the citizens from fire, medical emergencies, and hazardous material incidents in the field of suppression and prevention. Reports to a Fire Lieutenant or Fire Captain.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

• Responds to and provides fire prevention, rescue, fire suppression, and a variety of other assigned duties associated with fire and rescue.
• Assists in performing rescues from hazardous sites such as auto accidents and collapsed buildings.
• Operates fire apparatus and equipment.
• Advances hose lines into fire area; lays and connects hoses; holds nozzle and directs stream of water onto fire.
• Raises and climbs ladders.
• Creates openings in buildings for ventilation or entrance using various hand and power tools.
• Enters premises for firefighting, rescue, and salvage operations.
• Uses chemical extinguishers, bars, hooks, lines and other equipment.
• Provides immediate basic emergency care to ill or injured persons.
• Assesses patients to determine the extent of their condition, and renders immediate, appropriate treatment by performing necessary emergency medical care in accordance with established emergency medical protocols.
• Inspects assigned emergency response apparatus and equipment daily to ensure efficient operating condition and readiness.
• Cleans and maintains equipment, as necessary, after completion of emergency response operations.
• Performs minor repairs and assists in major repair of apparatus and equipment, as appropriate.
• Performs routine maintenance in association with daily, weekly, and monthly check offs.
• Attends and participates in training sessions on such topics as fire suppression techniques, emergency medical care, hazardous material containment, street layout, hydrant location, etc.
• Inspects commercial establishments and multi-family residences to determine the existence of fire hazards, the efficiency of fire protection equipment, and general compliance with appropriate codes and fire prevention standards.
• Conducts pre-fire surveys detailing physical layout of structures for inclusion in city emergency response data base.
• Studies street and road patterns and networks of the city so that future runs may be made with minimum difficulty and delay.
• Drives and operates emergency vehicles as required.
• Cleans and performs minor maintenance on department buildings and maintains fire station grounds.
• Performs other related work as required. Individual assignments will be determined by supervisor based on current workload and department needs.

Firefighters assigned to Prevention Unit perform the following duties:

• Responds to scenes of fire to examine scene, collect evidence, question witnesses and document incident.
• Investigates fires of suspicious nature to determine cause.
• Testifies in court as to conclusions drawn from investigations, as necessary.
• Prepares reports and records of investigation.
• Reviews site plans for new/redevelopment construction for compliance with Virginia Statewide Fire Prevention Code (VSFPC), the Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC), national standards and City codes regarding fire protection.
• Conducts technical fire prevention/environmental inspections to ensure compliance with the VSFPC, nationally recognized standards, and city codes.
• Testifies in court as to conclusions drawn from inspections as necessary.
• Properly prepares reports and records of inspections, deficiencies and violations.
• Appears before civic, community, school, business and industry, and other interested groups to deliver visual demonstrations, talks and films, and performs other public relations and educational activities in programs to improve consciousness of fire prevention and safety.
• Prepares and maintains various records and reports pertaining to activities and fire inspection and prevention programs.
• Investigates alleged misconduct of departmental personnel.

Firefighters assigned to Administration/Training Unit:

• Serves as lead instructor on various fire, emergency medical service and emergency management topics.
• Prepares and delivers instruction in Fire, EMS and Emergency Management Training, and produces a variety of reports related to the training environment.
• Maintains computer/information operations for department to include installation, maintenance, and repair of computers and software.
• Creates documents such as spreadsheets, timesheets and department forms.
• Maintains department electronic inventory.
• Maintains network integrity.
• Serves as administrator for Firehouse Fire Reporting software.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Knowledge of Job:

• Has general knowledge of the operating characteristics and service requirements of equipment and apparatus used in firefighting, emergency medical response, fire prevention, rescue operations and hazardous material response.
• Has general knowledge of the hazards involved in emergency response operations and of the applicable safety precautions.
• Has general knowledge of basic emergency medical procedures and extrication techniques.
• Has general knowledge of street layout, subdivisions, buildings and the location of fire hydrants in the city.
• Has general knowledge of departmental policies, procedures, rules and regulations.
• Is able to operate and care for assigned emergency response apparatus and equipment.
• Is able to exercise initiative in meeting and resolving emergency situations.
• Is able to analyze situations quickly and correctly and adopt effective courses of action with regard to surroundings and circumstances.
• Is able to maintain routine activity reports.
• Is able to effectively express ideas orally and in writing.
• Is able to establish and maintain effective working relationships as necessitated by work assignments.
• Has physical strength and agility to perform prolonged and arduous work under adverse conditions.

Quality of Work:

• Maintains high standards of accuracy in exercising duties and responsibilities.
• Exercises immediate remedial action to correct any quality deficiencies that occur in areas of responsibility.
• Maintains high quality communication and interacts within department and division, and with co-workers and the general public.

Quantity of Work:

• Maintains effective and efficient output of all duties and responsibilities as described under "Essential Job Functions."

Dependability:

• Assumes responsibility for doing assigned work and meeting deadlines.
• Completes assigned work on or before deadlines in accordance with directives, city policy, standards and prescribed procedures.
• Accepts accountability for meeting assigned responsibilities in the technical, human and conceptual areas.

Attendance:

• Attends work regularly and adheres to city policies and procedures regarding absences and tardiness.
• Provides adequate notice to higher management with respect to vacation time and time-off requests.

Initiative and Enthusiasm:

• Maintains an enthusiastic, self-reliant and self-starting approach to meet job responsibilities.
• Strives to anticipate work to be done and initiates proper and acceptable direction for completion of work with a minimum of supervision and instruction.

Judgment:

• Exercises analytical judgment in areas of responsibility.
• Identifies problems or situations as they occur and specifies decision objectives.
• Identifies or assists in identifying alternative solutions to problems or situations.
• Implements decisions in accordance with prescribed and effective policies and procedures and with a minimum of errors.
• Seeks expert or experienced advice and researches problems, situations and alternatives before exercising judgment.

Cooperation:

• Accepts supervisory instruction and direction and strives to meet the goals and objectives of same.
• Questions such instruction and direction when clarification of results or consequences are justified, i.e., poor communications, variance with city policy or procedures, etc.
• Offers suggestions and recommendations to encourage and improve cooperation between all staff persons within the department.

Relationships with Others:

• Shares knowledge with supervisors and staff for mutual and departmental benefit.
• Contributes to maintaining high morale among all department employees.
• Develops and maintains cooperative and courteous relationships with department employees, managers in other departments, representatives from organizations, supervisor, and the public to maintain good will toward the department and project a good departmental image.
• Tactfully and effectively handles requests, suggestions and complaints from other departments and persons to maintain good will within the city.
• Interacts effectively with fellow employees, supervisor, professionals and the public.

Coordination of Work:

• Plans and organizes daily work routine.
• Establishes priorities for the completion of work in accordance with sound time-management methodology.
• Avoids duplication of effort.
• Estimates expected time of completion of elements of work and establishes a personal schedule accordingly.
• Attends meetings, planning sessions and discussions on time.
• Implements work activity in accordance with priorities and estimated schedules.
• Maintains a calendar for meetings, deadlines and events.

Safety and Housekeeping:

• Adheres to all safety and housekeeping standards established by the city and various regulatory agencies.
• Sees that the standards are not violated.
• Maintains a clean and orderly workplace.

Education, Experience & Special Requirements

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

• Requires graduation from high school, or any equivalent combination of training and experience which provides the required education and experience.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

• Requires a comprehensive background investigation to include local, state, and federal criminal history check and sex offender registry check.
• Requires satisfactory results from a medical evaluation, psychological examination, and pre-employment substance abuse testing and is subject to random controlled substances testing.
• Must hold or have the ability to acquire as a condition of employment, certification by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a Firefighter I, II, Hazardous Materials Operations, and EVOC or other state approved emergency driving program.
• Firefighters hired after December 2016 must possess and maintain National Registry of EMT Advanced EMT certification no later than December 31, 2025.
• Ability to acquire certification as an Emergency Medical Technician Shock Trauma/Enhanced.

Physical Demands

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS OR STANDARDS REQUIRED TO PERFORM ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Physical Requirements:

• Must be physically able to operate a variety of machinery and equipment including driving a fire truck, and operation such firefighting and emergency response equipment as pumps, ladders, aerial platforms, air compressors, self-contained breathing apparatus, two-way radios, etc., as well as emergency medical equipment such as suction units, immobilization equipment, and oxygen delivery systems.
• Must be able to exert up to 150 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 50 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects.
• Physical requirements of the job are those rated for Very Heavy Work.

Data Conception:

• Requires the ability to compare and/or judge the readily observable, functional, structural or compositional characteristics (whether similar or divergent from obvious standards) of data, people or things.

Interpersonal Communication:

• Requires the ability of speaking and/or signaling people to convey or exchange information. Includes receiving instructions, assignments or directions from superiors.

Language Ability:

• Requires the ability to read a variety of reports, correspondence, charts, forms, permits, etc.
• Requires the ability to prepare correspondence, reports, forms, etc., using prescribed formats.

Intelligence:

• Requires the ability to apply principles of rational systems to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• To interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagrammatic, or schedule form.

Verbal Aptitude:

• Requires the ability to record and deliver information, to explain procedures, to follow oral and written instructions.
• Must be able to communicate effectively and efficiently in a variety of technical or professional languages including emergency response codes, and fire, medical and legal terminology.

Numerical Aptitude:

• Requires the ability to utilize mathematical formulas; to add and subtract; multiply and divide; utilize decimals and percentages; understand and apply the theories of algebra and geometry.

Form/Spatial Aptitude:

• Requires the ability to inspect items for proper length, width and shape.

Motor Coordination:

• Requires the ability coordinate hands and eyes rapidly and accurately in using firefighting equipment and hand tools.

Manual Dexterity:

• Requires the ability to handle a variety of items such as firefighting equipment and hand tools.
• Must have levels of eye/hand/foot coordination.

Color Discrimination:

• Requires the ability to differentiate between colors and shades of color.

Interpersonal Temperament:

• Requires the ability to deal with people beyond giving and receiving instructions.
• Must be adaptable to performing under stress and when confronted with emergency situations.

Physical Communication:

• Requires the ability to talk and hear: (Talking: expressing or exchanging ideas by means of spoken words. Hearing: perceiving nature of sounds by ear.)
• Must be able to communicate via telephone or two-way radio.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) REQUIREMENTS The City of Portsmouth is an Equal Opportunity Employer. ADA requires the City to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Prospective and current employees are invited to discuss accommodations.

This is a class description and not an individual position description. A class specification defines the general character and scope of duties and responsibilities of all positions in a job classification, but is not intended to describe and does not necessarily list the essential job functions for a given position in a classification.

The city of Portsmouth offers a complete and comprehensive benefit package to full-time employees including: medical, dental, vision, legal, Flexible Spending Accounts, basic and optional life insurance, short-term disability insurance, Virginia Retirement System (includes a mandatory 5% employee contribution), holidays, vacation, sick leave, deferred compensation plan, and Chartway Credit Union. To learn more details, visit http://va-portsmouthhr.civicplus.com/.

Application Questions

1. Do you have a valid drivers license with an acceptable driving record? [ ] Yes [ ] No

2. Please select the highest level of education completed. [ ] Less than High School [ ] High School Diploma or GED [ ] Some College [ ] Associates/Vocational/Technical [ ] Bachelors Degree or Higher

3. I understand that this is an Essential position which means I will be required to work during and following natural disasters and emergency situations. [ ] Yes [ ] No

4. How were you made aware of the job posting for Firefighter Recruit? [ ] Required Question

Employer Contact InformationCity of Portsmouth 801 Crawford Street 2nd Floor Human Resource Management Portsmouth, Virginia, 23704 Phone: (757) 393-8626 Website: http://va-portsmouthhr.civicplus.com/