LAGUNA NIGUEL : O.C. Fire Department Job Drive Underway

For the first time in four years, the Orange County Fire Department began accepting applications Monday for firefighting positions.

The county will give as many as 10,400 written exams in December, drawing applicants from a 13-day recruitment drive, which begins this week at fire stations throughout the county, said spokeswoman Emmy Day said.

Recruitment on Monday started in Laguna Niguel at Fire Station No. 49, where nearly 250 applied in less than three hours, and ended with applications being accepted in Rancho Santa Margarita.

A deluge of telephone calls to the department’s job hot line prompted fire officials to hire two extra telephone operators, Day said.

“The system almost shut down,” Day said. “The voice mailbox has capacity to handle 40 messages simultaneously. It was overwhelmed.”

The department plans to fill about 100 full-time positions, created by retirements and other attrition. The application drive ends Nov. 7 in Irvine.

Candidates must pass the written exam and a physical agility test. Those who are accepted must also graduate from the county’s fire academy.

The county has 637 full-time firefighters and about 600 firefighters who are on paid call, Day said.

For more information, call (714) 744-6627.