First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers
Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in firefighting and fire prevention and control.
Most important skills
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Reading Comprehension
- Monitoring
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Social Perceptiveness
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Education and Training
- Public Safety and Security
- Personnel and Human Resources
- Building and Construction
- English Language
- Administration and Management
- Medicine and Dentistry
What the work involves
- Assign firefighters to jobs at strategic locations to facilitate rescue of persons and maximize application of extinguishing agents.
- Provide emergency medical services as required, and perform light to heavy rescue functions at emergencies.
- Assess nature and extent of fire, condition of building, danger to adjacent buildings, and water supply status to determine crew or company requirements.
- Communicate fire details to superiors, subordinates, or interagency dispatch centers, using two-way radios.
- Serve as a working leader of an engine, hand, helicopter, or prescribed fire crew of three or more firefighters.
- Instruct and drill fire department personnel in assigned duties, including firefighting, medical care, hazardous materials response, fire prevention, and related subjects.
- Maintain fire suppression equipment in good condition, checking equipment periodically to ensure that it is ready for use.
- Evaluate the performance of assigned firefighting personnel.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Enterprising, Realistic, Conventional.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (38.2% of expert ratings)
- Related experience
- None (26.8%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years (35.1%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 3: Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers 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 | High | Higher on contact with others than 79% of occupations compared | 73% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 87% of occupations compared | 76% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Very high | Higher on teamwork than 93% of occupations compared | 80% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 82% of occupations compared | 52% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 76% of occupations compared | 66% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 95% of occupations compared | 59% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 82% of occupations compared | — |
| Consequence of error | Very high | Higher on consequence of error than 98% of occupations compared | 88% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- 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: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 27.08%
- Constant contact with others: 72.92%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 12.68%
- Important: 10.89%
- Very important: 0.27%
- Extremely important: 76.16%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 0%
- Very important: 20.28%
- Extremely important: 79.72%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 0%
- Some freedom: 47.53%
- A lot of freedom: 52.47%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 3.56%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 1.06%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 66.4%
- Every day: 28.99%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
Conflict situations
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 2.74%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 17.29%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 58.82%
- Every day: 21.16%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 6.29%
- Once a month or more but not every week: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a week or more but not every day: 13.73%
- Every day: 21.16%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 0%
- Fairly serious: 7.6%
- Serious: 0.55%
- Very serious: 4.06%
- Extremely serious: 87.79%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2026
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O*NET-SOC 33-1021.00 · SOC 33-1021 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8