The Tulsa Fire Department wants the minimum age for cadets to be dropped from 21 to 18.
A request approved by the mayor and city council said the change will increase the applicant pool. Administrative Chief Nate Morgans said being able to hire 18-year-olds will make the Tulsa Fire Department more competitive with other cities.
"Specifically, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Broken Arrow and Owasso, all of which the hiring age is 18," Morgans said.
Morgans said the change will make it easier to help Tulsa Public Schools students on the fire department’s career path program transition from high school to Tulsa Community College on the Tulsa Achieves Scholarship.
"Right now, when those students graduate, they’re 18 years old for the most part, and we lose contact with them from 18 to 21," Morgans said.
TCC offers a fire and emergency medical services associate’s degree, and the Tulsa Fire Department operates a regional academy there.
Morgans said the minimum age of 21 has cost the fire department some good candidates.
"There’s a young man from, like, the Sapulpa area who’s been a firefighter in McAlester for, like, the last two years, he’s already an EMT, has all the qualifications to be a firefighter. He just wouldn’t have turned 21 until April, and we started this academy in January," Morgans said. "We would have hired that young man that day, but we couldn’t."
No other requirements are being changed. People who want to be Tulsa firefighters must have at least a high school diploma or GED, and they must earn their emergency medical technician state and national licenses before being hired.
