LO
Firefighter — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers · Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists · Fire Inspectors and Investigators · Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineers · Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers · Emergency Medical Technicians · Paramedics · Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
In the official classification#
Firefighters
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 1–2: very little to some preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 33-2011.00 (Firefighters). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- CoordinationVery important
- Service OrientationVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- Social PerceptivenessImportant
- Complex Problem SolvingImportant
- Operations MonitoringImportant
- Operation and ControlImportant
- Time ManagementImportant
Knowledge
- Public Safety and SecurityVery important
- TransportationImportant
- Customer and Personal ServiceImportant
- Medicine and DentistryImportant
- MechanicalImportant
- Communications and MediaImportant
Work activities
- Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or EquipmentVery important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsVery important
- Updating and Using Relevant KnowledgeVery important
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or MaterialsVery important
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and EventsVery important
- Getting InformationVery important
Abilities
- Problem SensitivityVery important
- Static StrengthVery important
- StaminaVery important
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Control PrecisionVery important
Essential skills
- Active ListeningVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- Active LearningVery important
- SpeakingVery important
- MonitoringVery important
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 6 task judgements are for: 2 backed by a verified event, 4 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Four kinds of source, and each block says which: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.