What does a firefighter do?
You arrive at something dangerous with one crew and a few minutes, and you decide the order things get done in — because the order is what decides who gets out.
Also called: fire and rescue officer.
A day looks like
- 1Most of the shift is checks and drills. The kit gets tested whether or not anything happened yesterday.
- 2A call. You are dressed and moving in under two minutes, knowing almost nothing about what you are driving to.
- 3On arrival, thirty seconds of reading the building before anyone goes in: where is the fire, where is the air going, where are the people.
- 4Afterwards you clean and re-stow every piece of equipment, because the next call does not wait for you to be ready.
Hardest part
Saying 'not yet'. There will be something a person is begging you to go in for, and you will have to be the one who says no and be right about it.
Best part
You are the crew that turns up when everything has gone wrong, and people are visibly glad to see you. Not many jobs feel like that.
How you actually become a firefighter
- At schoolFinish school and stay fit — the entry fitness tests are real and they fail people.
- TrainingApply to a fire service, then an intensive residential training course.
- How longAround 4 months of initial training, then two to three years to be fully competent.
- Your first jobTrainee firefighter, on probation with a watch.
Frequently asked questions
- Do firefighters only fight fires?
- No — a large share of calls are road collisions, flooding, people trapped, chemical spills and rescues. Many services attend more medical and rescue calls than actual fires.
- Why do firefighters sometimes refuse to go in?
- Because a crew that gets hurt cannot rescue anyone else. Every decision is judged on whether the risk is worth what can actually be saved — and a life outranks everything, while property never does.
- How do you become a firefighter?
- You apply to a fire service directly, pass fitness and aptitude tests, and then do several months of intensive training. You do not need a degree, but you do need to genuinely pass the fitness standard.
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