---
title: "First-Line Supervisor of Firefighting and Prevention Workers"
description: "Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in firefighting and fire prevention and control."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-firefighting-and-prevention-workers"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# First-Line Supervisor of Firefighting and Prevention Workers

**Category:** Protective Service · **SOC code:** 33-1021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 33-1021.00

Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in firefighting and fire prevention and control.

Also advertised as: Battalion Chief; Engine Boss; Fire Battalion Chief; Fire Captain; Fire Chief; Fire Lieutenant; Fire Marshal; Fire Suppression Captain.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $93,530 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $44.96/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $53,430 to $140,010, with the middle half between $72,140 and $119,500
- **Total US employment:** 99,140
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 6,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 64/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 99,140 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $53,430 |
| 25th | $72,140 |
| 50th (median) | $93,530 |
| 75th | $119,500 |
| 90th | $140,010 |
| Mean (average) | $96,930 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NJ | $133,210 | $122,430 | 2,210 |
| NY | $132,520 | $122,794 | 4,100 |
| WA | $129,350 | $120,873 | 3,350 |
| CA | $127,630 | $115,273 | 8,170 |
| DC | $126,560 | $115,158 | 380 |
| IL | $123,500 | $123,552 | 3,240 |
| MD | $120,530 | $114,835 | 2,380 |
| CO | $102,580 | $99,542 | 1,900 |
| PA | $101,050 | $103,565 | 1,340 |
| UT | $100,380 | $101,533 | 770 |
| OR | $100,260 | $97,000 | 1,160 |
| FL | $98,560 | $95,306 | 9,540 |
| CT | $98,500 | $95,068 | 1,310 |
| VA | $97,780 | $96,712 | 3,300 |
| MA | $96,600 | $91,341 | 3,370 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-firefighting-and-prevention-workers/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-firefighting-and-prevention-workers.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 101,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 105,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 3,800 jobs, or +3.7%. About as fast as average: 3.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 6,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Communicate fire details to superiors, subordinates, or interagency dispatch centers, using two-way radios.
- Perform administrative duties, such as compiling and maintaining records, completing forms, preparing reports, or composing correspondence.
- Recommend personnel actions related to disciplinary procedures, performance, leaves of absence, and grievances.
- Maintain knowledge of fire laws and fire prevention techniques and tactics.
- Provide emergency medical services as required, and perform light to heavy rescue functions at emergencies.
- Evaluate size, location, and condition of fires.
- Evaluate the performance of assigned firefighting personnel.
- Maintain fire suppression equipment in good condition, checking equipment periodically to ensure that it is ready for use.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.15 |
| R — Realistic | 5.14 |
| C — Conventional | 4.66 |
| S — Social | 3.72 |
| I — Investigative | 2.26 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 83.3 |
| ESFJ | 74.3 |
| ESTP | 70.5 |
| ISTJ | 69.2 |
| ISFJ | 64.8 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Firefighter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/firefighter) — median $59,280
- [Forest Fire Inspector and Prevention Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forest-fire-inspector-and-prevention-specialist) — median $56,870
- [Fire Inspector and Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fire-inspector-and-investigator) — median $75,920
- [Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fire-prevention-and-protection-engineer) — median $115,160
- [First-Line Supervisor of Security Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-security-workers) — median $55,940
- [First-Line Supervisor of Police and Detectives](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-police-and-detectives) — median $106,040
- [Emergency Management Director](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-management-director) — median $93,330
- [Occupational Health and Safety Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-health-and-safety-specialist) — median $90,150
- [First-Line Supervisor of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-construction-trades-and-extraction-workers) — median $79,920
- [First-Line Supervisor of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-farming-fishing-and-forestry-workers) — median $59,320

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

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