Career profile Fire Chief

Table of Contents

• What does a Fire Chief do?
• What is a typical salary for a Fire Chief?
• What personality traits are common among Fire Chiefs?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Fire Chiefs need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Fire Chief do?

Fire Chiefs directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in firefighting and fire prevention and control.

What kind of tasks does a Fire Chief perform regularly?

Fire Chiefs are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• 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.
• Maintain fire suppression equipment in good condition, checking equipment periodically to ensure that it is ready for use.
• Instruct and drill fire department personnel in assigned duties, including firefighting, medical care, hazardous materials response, fire prevention, and related subjects.
• Evaluate the performance of assigned firefighting personnel.
• Direct the training of firefighters, assigning of instructors to training classes, and providing of supervisors with reports on training progress and status.
• Perform maintenance and minor repairs on firefighting equipment, including vehicles, and write and submit proposals to modify, replace, and repair equipment.
• Schedule employee work assignments and set work priorities.
• Monitor fire suppression expenditures to ensure that they are necessary and reasonable.
• Participate in creating fire safety guidelines and evacuation schemes for nonresidential buildings.
• Maintain required maps and records.
• Drive crew carriers to transport firefighters to fire sites.
• Inspect stations, uniforms, equipment, or recreation areas to ensure compliance with safety standards, taking corrective action as necessary.
• Direct firefighters in station maintenance duties, and participate in these duties.
• Evaluate fire station procedures to ensure efficiency and enforcement of departmental regulations.
• Recommend personnel actions related to disciplinary procedures, performance, leaves of absence, and grievances.
• Perform administrative duties, such as compiling and maintaining records, completing forms, preparing reports, or composing correspondence.
• Direct investigation of cases of suspected arson, hazards, and false alarms and submit reports outlining findings.
• Recommend equipment modifications or new equipment purchases.
• Supervise and participate in the inspection of properties to ensure that they are in compliance with applicable fire codes, ordinances, laws, regulations, and standards.

The above responsibilities are specific to Fire Chiefs. More generally, Fire Chiefs are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Fire Chief salary?

What personality traits are common among Fire Chiefs?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Fire Chief are usually higher in their Enterprising, Realistic, and Social interests.

Fire Chiefs typically have very strong Enterprising interests. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Also, Fire Chiefs typically have strong Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Lastly, Fire Chiefs typically have moderate Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Fire Chief tend to value Independence, Support, and Achievement.

Most importantly, Fire Chiefs strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Second, Fire Chiefs strongly value Support. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees.

Lastly, Fire Chiefs strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Fire Chiefs must consistently demonstrate qualities such as dependability, integrity, and leadership.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Fire Chiefs, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Fire Chiefs need?

Fire Chiefs often have training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Fire Chiefs usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with this occupation.

Educational degrees among Fire Chiefs

• 0.7% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 12.3% completed high school or secondary school
• 31.3% completed some college coursework
• 22.0% earned a Associate's degree
• 25.3% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 7.7% earned a Master's degree
• 0.7% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Fire Chiefs

Important Abilities needed by Fire Chiefs

Fire Chiefs must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Fire Chiefs need abilities such as problem sensitivity, oral comprehension, and oral expression in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Fire Chiefs, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Fire Chiefs

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Fire Chiefs frequently use skills like critical thinking, monitoring, and speaking to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Fire Chiefs, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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