The Complete Guide to Becoming A Firefighter

Chapter 1: What Does a Firefighter Actually Do?

When you think of a firefighter, you probably picture someone running into a burning building. That does happen. But it happens far less often than you might think. The reality of the job is much broader, much more routine, and in many ways, much more demanding than the Hollywood version. To decide if this career is right for you, you need to understand what you will actually be doing on the job - not just on the big incidents, but on the average Tuesday.

Let us start with the fundamentals. A firefighter is a public safety professional whose primary job is to respond to emergencies. That list of emergencies includes structure fires, wildland fires, vehicle accidents, medical emergencies, hazardous material spills, and technical rescue situations like a person trapped in a collapsed trench or a hiker stuck on a cliff. Firefighters are also called to assist with natural disasters - floods, earthquakes, and severe storms. But here is the number that might surprise you: in most urban and suburban fire departments across the United States, medical calls account for 60% to 80% of all emergency responses. That means the most common thing you will do as a firefighter is provide emergency medical care, not fight fires.

This is a critical fact to understand. The profession has evolved significantly over the past 40 years. As emergency medical services (EMS) became more integrated into the 911 system, fire departments took on the role of