SHERIDAN — In the face of continued difficulty filling open positions, Sheridan Fire-Rescue is reevaluating some of the measures in place for hiring new firefighters and planning to administer testing for new candidates in March.
Sheridan Fire-Rescue Chief Gary Harnish said the testing process narrows down potential candidates to a pool of 16, which is then submitted to the Fire Civil Service Commission for approval. Candidates are then contacted from the list, currently valid for two years, when needed. However, this process has not held up over the past year among struggles to secure potential new hires.
“The list was certified on Sept. 29 of 2021. At that time we had it set for two years, so it was set to expire on Sept. 29, 2023,” Harnish said. “The list is exhausted. There is no list anymore, so we are preparing to test again.”
The testing process consists of three parts taking place over three days. Potential candidates begin with a written test and, in line with state civil service rules, must score at 75% or higher to be considered eligible. Up to 24 people are then chosen to advance to the second portion of the test, a physical ability test, which challenges applicants to a physical test involving firefighting tasks.
“Our candidate physical ability test is a prescribed national test that was put together by the International Association of Firefighters, International Association of Fire Chiefs. It has been legally determined to be a valid and unbiased test, so we put that on at the station,” Harnish said. “They get checked in, they’ll go through and it’s either a pass or a fail, it’s not a scored test. It’s pass or fail based on 10 minutes and 20-some seconds.”
Up to 16 candidates can then be chosen to advance to the third and final portion of the testing process, an oral interview that allows leadership at SFR to assess the potential candidates.
“The board will consist of a line firefighter, a fire officer, one member of HR and one police officer that’s in their first level supervision,” Harnish said. “We’ve got just general questions that we ask and we’re really looking to determine character. Experience is wonderful, but we’re looking for character. Optimism, integrity, teamwork, all those kinds of things that we value as a city.”
With the number of participants in the test dwindling year after year, down from more than 100 to just more than 20 in the last cycle, the two-year life of the list has become unsustainable.
“It used to be that we’d need to have a hundred people show up to test. You could maintain that list a lot longer, of the top candidates, and we’re just not seeing that,” Harnish said.
“People seem to have lost interest in the profession,” said William Clouthier, chair of the Fire Civil Service Commission.
Harnish proposed narrowing the effective timeline of the list from two years to one in an effort to remediate the issue.
“We haven’t been able to maintain a list for that long and typically the way that works with firefighters is somebody that wants the job, they don’t just test in Sheridan. They test in Laramie, they test in Billings, they test in Rapid City, so they’re on multiple lists,” Harnish explained. “Over two years people are finding other employment and then we spend a lot of time finding out who’s still interested.”
City Human Resources Director Heather Doke said the city has nearly exhausted all avenues of getting the word out about open testing applications. Doke said there has been an active effort from SFR and the city to advertise open positions on social media.
Doke said interested candidates can apply online through sheridanwy.gov or pick up a physical application at Sheridan City Hall.
Shelby Kruse started as the public safety reporter in November 2022.
