Firefighters
Control and extinguish fires or respond to emergency situations where life, property, or the environment is at risk. Duties may include fire prevention, emergency medical service, hazardous material response, search and rescue, and disaster assistance.
Most important skills
- Coordination
- Active Listening
- Critical Thinking
- Active Learning
- Speaking
- Monitoring
- Service Orientation
- Judgment and Decision Making
Key knowledge
- Public Safety and Security
- Transportation
- Customer and Personal Service
- Medicine and Dentistry
- Mechanical
- Communications and Media
- Education and Training
- Telecommunications
What the work involves
- Rescue survivors from burning buildings, accident sites, and water hazards.
- Dress with equipment such as fire-resistant clothing and breathing apparatus.
- Assess fires and situations and report conditions to superiors to receive instructions, using two-way radios.
- Move toward the source of a fire, using knowledge of types of fires, construction design, building materials, and physical layout of properties.
- Respond to fire alarms and other calls for assistance, such as automobile and industrial accidents.
- Create openings in buildings for ventilation or entrance, using axes, chisels, crowbars, electric saws, or core cutters.
- Drive and operate fire fighting vehicles and equipment.
- Inspect fire sites after flames have been extinguished to ensure that there is no further danger.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Realistic, Conventional, Social.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (69.5% of expert ratings)
- Related experience
- None (53.6%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (27.3%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Firefighters is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very low | Lower on contact with others than 82% of occupations compared | 38% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | High | Higher on dealing with the public than 77% of occupations compared | — |
| Teamwork | Moderate | Higher on teamwork than 52% of occupations compared | 57% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Moderate | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 51% of occupations compared | 72% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 84% of occupations compared | 39% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 69% of occupations compared | — |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Moderate | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 54% of occupations compared | 48% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Consequence of error | Very high | Higher on consequence of error than 81% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: moderate
- Consequence of error: very high
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 20.67%
- Contact with others about half the time: 8.62%
- Contact with others most of the time: 32.38%
- Constant contact with others: 38.32%
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 5.11%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 24.21%
- Very important: 18.96%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 5.11%
- Important: 15.57%
- Very important: 21.88%
- Extremely important: 57.45%
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 2.03%
- Limited freedom: 5.14%
- Some freedom: 71.86%
- A lot of freedom: 20.97%
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
Time pressure
- Never: 2.29%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 20.73%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 38.79%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 16%
- Every day: 22.19%
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
Conflict situations
- Never: 2.29%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 28.66%
- Once a month or more but not every week: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a week or more but not every day: 24.7%
- Every day: 10.52%
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 47.88%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 29.53%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 12.94%
- Every day: 9.65%
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 23.73%
- Fairly serious: 0%
- Serious: 1.69%
- Very serious: 25.95%
- Extremely serious: 48.62%
n = 28, Incumbent 08/2026
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O*NET-SOC 33-2011.00 · SOC 33-2011 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8