Whatever you do, don't try chicago. It's completely and utterly wretched up here. As soon as I can get custody of my daughter, the wifey and I are headin west. Either Washington, or Texas.
As far as I know there is nothing you can do as of right now except research the topic at hand. You'd have to have your certifications in order to do anything. A guy in my old class, however, went and did some work with a hometown fire department near my house, it's on an on-call basis but still...