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.
- Median pay
- $59,280
- Doing it now
- 355,300
- By 2035
- Up 3.7%
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
a year
across the country
26,800 openings a year
to get in
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.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Environmental/Natural Resources Management and PolicySee 99 colleges that teach it
- Fire ProtectionSee 52 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Hands-on and practical
Organised and precise
Helping and teaching
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $59,280 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.