What Sort of Careers in Firefighting Are Available?
When looking for a career to serve your community, you can’t do much better than becoming a firefighter. The firefighter who enters flaming buildings, operates a fire hose, and rescues people is just one role in the field. What sort of careers in firefighting are available? Here’s a sampling of the jobs you can find fighting fires or supporting those who do.
Wildland Firefighter
Sadly, wildfires are happening more frequently in the United States due to climate change, drought, and careless humans. Fortunately, wildland firefighters face off conflagrations across forests, prairies, and the brush. Wildland firefighters can be engine drivers, helicopter pilots, or operators of bulldozers and similar heavy equipment. Highly trained wildland firefighters include smokejumpers, who parachute from planes into remote spots and rappelers, who travel by chopper and rappel into hotspots at a moment’s notice.
Volunteer Firefighter
It’s all in the name. Volunteer firefighters can serve where full-time and salaried firefighter positions aren’t available. They may be paid or not but are just as much firefighters as full-timers. Volunteer firefighters are on-call but may not necessarily be called upon to fight fires. More often, they’re called to provide first aid, clean up accident scenes, and perform similar duties to protect the public’s safety.
Airport Firefighter
Fires can occur on planes and at airports, too. Airport firefighters stop and prevent fires in airport buildings and runways, as well as any fires resulting from on-site crashes. Since airport fires tend to be electrical, oil, and fuel-based, these firefighters are trained to quench fires with specialized equipment, including foam. Every second counts in an emergency, so airport firefighting crews must respond to fires swiftly since airports are massive and harder for external crews to reach.
Fire Engineer
There’s a difference between a general firefighter and a fire engineer, but it’s slim. A fire engineer is the person who does all the driving of the various trucks. They also have specialized knowledge of firefighting equipment, how to contain fires, the right approach to putting one out, and the assorted rules and laws covering fire protection and prevention.
Now you know some available careers in firefighting! The best way to find such a position is to watch for an opening in your community.