Recruit Conduct

The Clark County Recruit Academy is made up of people from many different backgrounds and experiences. Many of you have advanced degrees, were in positions of leadership or authority in previous jobs, or earned significantly higher wages. Be this as it may, as a recruit you are now in a position to learn and be educated by people who have much more experience and time invested in the fire service than you do. You will be expected to follow orders and obey instructions to the letter.

The fire service itself is a paramilitary organization that uses the chain of command for the transfer of information and instructions. This paramilitary structure and organization will also be used within the recruit academy and is done so with your safety and the safety of those around you in mind.

Recruits who are unable to follow directions and take orders will have a difficult time participating in and being successful within the framework of the recruit academy.

In accordance with the paramilitary structure and in keeping with the Clark County Fire Departments expectation that all its customers are treated with the highest level of respect, all recruits will address fire department members by their rank and surname. Along with this recruits will begin and end all sentences with either sir or ma’am. All non-members of the department will simply be addressed as sir or ma’am.

Once rookie school has begun all recruits are prohibited from speaking with members of the fire department who are not members of the cadre or working as a guest instructors. The only exception to this rule is when a recruit has a member of his or her immediate family on the fire department that he or she is living with. During this time conversations are to be limited to non-academy subject matter.

Time is of the essence during rookie school. A lot of education must be undertaken in a short period of time in order to cover all of the material that is necessary to produce a Clark County Firefighter. In order to assure that recruits are able to receive all of their instruction HUSTLE is expected from recruits at all times.

The fire academy is no place for laziness or attitudes that do not exhibit a sense of urgency. The Clark County Fire Department takes an aggressive and active stance with regard to firefighting strategy and tactics. This aggressive mindset, however, does not mean that we operate without safety as our first concern. Safety on the fireground and on all fire departments incidents is of the highest priority. Recruits are expected to be “on board” with this safety first attitude.

Proper PPE and situational awareness are mandatory for all recruits on the fire and drill ground. Horseplay, practical jokes, and fooling around will never be accepted or tolerated during rookie school. Firefighting is the ultimate team oriented career. As a recruit firefighter you will be expected to operate within a team oriented environment and work well with others no matter what differences you may encounter. You will be expected to learn about and become family with your fellow recruits. You are in this together.