March 14, 2025/Midnight

Erie, PA.—Firefighters hurriedly layer heavy gear. They have 80 seconds to get ready and leave the station. A team of firefighters are already tearing through the streets of a busy city, sirens screaming and lights flashing. It’s a race against time to reach a burning building. An emergency has been called in, and they are ready to answer it.

Ten minutes before, those very same firefighters were relaxing at their fire station, in regular clothes, doing their daily chores, eating dinner, and talking.

Firefighters are widely known as one of three main emergency responders, often working alongside police officers and hospital personnel for the benefit of their communities. But what does the job of a firefighter entail?

Of course, most people will jump straight to the obvious answer: fighting fires.

However, residential fires have been steadily decreasing over time. While fighting fires is an important job, it does not seem to take up as much time as it used to. So, what do firefighters do when they’re not battling flames?

Rebekah Young, a volunteer firefighter, explains, “In the state of Pennsylvania, to get what is called your entry level firefighting certification, it is over 200 hours of training, which goes anywhere from setting up traffic cones to putting out a housefire. There are a lot of certifications that go into it.”

Even after gaining entry level firefighting certification, the training doesn’t stop. As technology and equipment changes, firefighters are expected to stay up to date with their knowledge. Many firefighters will also take extra classes to be able to pass exams and meet criteria that will allow them to advance their firefighting career.

Young also explains a few more of the duties that firefighters have outside of responding to fire emergencies. She says, “We have biweekly meetings in addition to biweekly training nights. So obviously, you want to keep your skills honed, in case a big emergency does happen.”

She explains her fire stations’ training routine. “Tuesday nights will usually be a couple hours of training, and it’ll be anything from practicing tying knots to with a piece of rope, to taking our ground ladders and throwing them up against the side of a building, and climbing up the building, and coming back down.”

Some firefighters will specialize in fighting wildfires, which takes extra training. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says, “Wildland firefighters are specially trained to control forest fires. Wildland firefighters frequently create fire lines—a swath of cut-down trees and dug-up grass in the path of a fire—to deprive a fire of fuel. They also use prescribed fires to burn potential fire fuel under controlled conditions. Some wildland firefighters, known as smoke jumpers, parachute from airplanes to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.” These firefighters devote extra time and training to this particularly dangerous field.

However, firefighters don’t only train to fight fires. Medical emergencies are the most common call that firefighters respond to. Firefighter Insider states that, “Nearly 95% of calls that come to fire departments are not for fires and the majority (about 65%) of them are for medical emergencies.” Because of this, all firefighters are trained in basic EMT skills and can provide emergency medical services. This is why firetrucks can often be seen on the site of car accidents, even when there is no fire in sight.

While medical emergencies make up a large portion of a firefighter’s job, there’s still more to their job description. Firefighters will respond to incidents like stuck elevators, gas leaks, or fallen power lines. These are not related to fires, or even medical emergencies, but are still common jobs for the fire department. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says, “Some firefighters also work in hazardous materials (hazmat) units and are specially trained in controlling and cleaning up oil spills, chemical accidents, and other potentially harmful substances. They work with hazardous materials removal workers in these cases.”

Outside of responding to emergency calls of all varieties, and training to answer those emergencies, firefighters still have work to do when they get back to their stations. The firehouse is where members of the firefighting team will spend most of their time. Therefore, keeping the house clean and organized is a large part of firefighter’s jobs.

Firefighters must take careful inventory of the supplies in their fire trucks, as well as ensure that their supplies are clean and functioning properly. This sentiment also applies for their own personal gear and uniform.

Finally, firefighters are often heavily involved in their community. Therefore, doing fire station tours is often one of their responsibilities. These tours, mostly targeted towards schoolchildren, explain how a fire station operates, what different equipment does, and what the duties of a firefighter are. Firefighters are expected to supervise these tours and explain their responsibilities and job demands.

Young explains, “Our representatives usually host touch-a-truck events, where we park our fire trucks in a parking lot somewhere. We’ve gone to a Walmart before, or we’ll do it at the high school or at the fire department.”

She adds, “We invite the community to come and meet some of us…we try to do a lot of education and fire prevention stuff with the youth in the community so that they’re not afraid to come up to us if they see us at an emergency. We talk a lot with the community about pre-planning, if their house is on fire or if the smoke alarm is going off, to prepare for those emergencies should they ever happen.”

Fighting fires is an important job, yet it turns out to be just a small percentage of what firefighters do. From responding to medical emergencies, to stuck elevators, to showing school tours around fire stations- firefighters have full schedules, even without any flames to battle.

Erie County has over 30 fire stations, and the firefighting industry overall is projected to grow. In the next few years, about 25,000 firefighting jobs nationwide are expected to be available yearly. If you’re interested in learning more, or becoming a firefighter for Erie County, click here for more information.