Protective Service · Holland code ERC
First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers
Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in firefighting and fire prevention and control.
Also called: Engine Boss, Fire Battalion Chief, Fire Captain, Fire Chief, Battalion Chief, Fire Lieutenant, Fire Marshal, Fire Suppression Captain.
O*NET 33-1021.00
At a glance
- US median annual pay
- $93,530
- Middle half earn $72,140 to $119,500. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
- Preparation needed
- Job Zone 3 of 5
- Medium preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
What the work involves
The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.
- Provide emergency medical services as required, and perform light to heavy rescue functions at emergencies.
- Maintain fire suppression equipment in good condition, checking equipment periodically to ensure that it is ready for use.
- Assign firefighters to jobs at strategic locations to facilitate rescue of persons and maximize application of extinguishing agents.
- 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.
- Evaluate size, location, and condition of fires.
- Instruct and drill fire department personnel in assigned duties, including firefighting, medical care, hazardous materials response, fire prevention, and related subjects.
- Recruit or hire firefighting personnel.
Skills and knowledge it leans on
Skills
- Active Listening4.0 / 5
- Speaking3.9 / 5
- Critical Thinking3.9 / 5
- Reading Comprehension3.8 / 5
- Monitoring3.8 / 5
- Writing3.3 / 5
Knowledge areas
- Customer and Personal Service4.8 / 5
- Education and Training4.2 / 5
- Public Safety and Security4.0 / 5
- Personnel and Human Resources3.8 / 5
- Building and Construction3.8 / 5
- English Language3.7 / 5
Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.
Who tends to enjoy it
How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.
- Realistic69
- Investigative21
- Artistic0
- Social45
- Enterprising86
- Conventional61
The same work abroad
Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.
European occupation titles (ESCO)
- fire commissioner · DE Brandinspektor/Brandinspektorin · FR chef de centre d'incendie et de secours
- chief fire officer · DE Feuerwehrkommandant/Feuerwehrkommandantin · FR responsable de sécurité civile et de secours
- fire prevention and protection engineer · DE Brandschutzingenieur/Brandschutzingenieurin · FR ingénieur sécurité incendie/ingénieure sécurité incendie
- firefighter instructor · DE Feuerwehrausbilder/Feuerwehrausbilderin · FR sapeur-pompier formateur/sapeuse-pompière formatrice
- fire inspector · DE Brandschutzinspektor/Brandschutzinspektorin · FR inspecteur de conformité en sécurité incendie/inspectrice de conformité en sécurité incendie
- firefighter · DE Berufsfeuerwehrmann/Berufsfeuerwehrfrau · FR pompier/pompière
Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)
- Senior officers in fire, ambulance, prison and related services (1163)8,000 employed
- Heavy and large goods vehicle drivers (8211)273,400 employed
- Fire service officers (watch manager and below) (3313)45,100 employed
Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.
Pay across Europe, for the whole group
Median annual earnings of all employees in “Service and sales workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.
| Country | Median pay |
|---|---|
| Belgium | €32,957 |
| Sweden | €32,596 |
| Netherlands | €29,198 |
| Austria | €29,068 |
| Germany | €27,471 |
| Ireland | €26,978 |
| Italy | €24,995 |
| France | €24,971 |
| Spain | €18,303 |
| Portugal | €10,656 |
| Poland | €7,579 |
Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.
Exposure to AI
This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -0.59. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.
Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.
Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (33-1021).
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