Civil Service... NYPD or FDNY?

Currently in the process of completing the questionaire portion of the NYPD hiring application. I took the test last year when I was 35 and recently was mailed a letter stating I have until mid-September to complete this section of the process. For a starting out a third of what I was being paid as a teacher, this section is elaborate.

In order to qualify for the FDNY the age limit is 30 at the time of the test. So I seems to have missed the cut. However, there is a backdoor promotion into the FDNY. If you can qualify and get hired as an EMT for the FDNY then you can either be promoted to become a paramedic or a uniformed FDNY firefighter. There is no age limit for the EMT, but
                                                  you still have to be hired by the FDNY. I should have taken these civil
                                                  service exams a long time ago, but then I thought I knew better.