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Fire Safety Technicians

Experience, Skills, and Personality Traits

Some fire safety technicians have prior experience working as firefighters. Others gain experience by participating in cooperative work-study programs. Firefighters must be able to follow orders and to accept the discipline that is necessary for effective teamwork. While on active call, firefighters usually work under the close supervision of commanding officers such as battalion chiefs or assistant fire chiefs. Their work requires highly organized team efforts to be effective, since there is usually a great deal of excitement and confusion at fires.

Fire science technicians, who do not work as firefighters but as industrial or government inspectors and consultants, do not need unusual physical strength. These technicians must be able to read and write with ease and to communicate well to study technical information and give good written or oral reports.

Fire safety technicians must have a natural curiosity about everything that relates to fire. They must be patient and willing to study the physics and chemistry of fire, as well as fire prevention and control. They must also be able to think systematically and objectively as they analyze fire hazards, damages, and prevention.

Technicians must be observant and understand how human factors of carelessness, thoughtlessness, fatigue, or haste may cause fires. One of the great challenges of this career is to learn how to teach people to avoid the mistakes that cause fires and to establish safety procedures and controls that prevent fires.