Ride-Alongs

Ride-alongs are defined as opportunities for individuals to come to a station and ride with crews on fire apparatus for a designated time period. The ride-along timeframe will be 7 am to 7 pm and is at the discretion of the station officer to allow for more time. Ride-alongs will not be scheduled on “line-observed” holidays unless approved by the station officer. Ride-alongs are observation only, riders are not to take part in emergency operations.

Requirements

Requests for a ride-along shall originate through SMFR’s homepage a minimum of 2 weeks prior to the requested date and are subject to the following requirements:

  1. The individual is enrolled in a high-school trade program, or fire-science program and/or is involved with the Arapahoe Rescue Patrol or Explorer Program or
  2. The individual is a minimum of 18 years old unless active in one of the above-listed programs and
  3. The individual cannot be in a current SMFR recruitment process

Please note that if you are an active candidate in South Metro’s process for employment, you are not permitted to do a ride-along at this time.

Application Process

  1. Riders who meet the above requirements will need to fill out the Online Application Form. 
  2. Please note that only requests made through SMFR’s external website will be processed.  
  3. Once the rider has been approved and meets the initial criteria, they will be notified to complete a criminal background check, which must be done no more than 30 days prior to the selected ride date and must be paid for by the applicant.
  4. Once the background check has been submitted and approved, the rider must fill out and sign a Hold Harmless Agreement and HIPAA Compliance Agreement.
  5.  Once fully approved, the designated ride-along coordinator will schedule the ride-along.

Please be aware that SMFR does reserve the right to deny any request. If your request is not approved, you will receive a timely notification of the reason. 

Conduct Standards

To participate in a ride-along, riders will be held to the same Conduct Standards as SMFR firefighters. Riders should wear a white or light blue polo, dark blue/black pants (no jeans), sturdy boots or shoes (no open-toed shoes), and bring appropriate outerwear. Riders are limited to one ride per school year.