Athens Texas Firefighter Salary And Job Requirements

As the name says, Firefighters are individuals who basically save people or other things from fire by fighting it. They’re picked among the best to risk their lives in rescue actions. Normally loved by girls, these pros are not afraid of anything and literally lay down their lives everyday just like policemen. You see the accolades these experts acquire, would you not like to become like these brave firefighters?

firefighter career summary Athens Texas
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Table Of Contents

How Much Does A Firefighter Make In Athens?

People say that work doesn’t seem like work anymore if you value what you do. On the other hand, passion is not enough to sustain a life-style. We all need bucks so we could move, after all money is everything. As a result, when it comes to choosing a career, individuals are always curious about how much they might earn out of it. Genuinely, undeniably that’s the motivation you set your alarm clock to get you ready for the job everyday. People who do community outreach don’t earn much. However, they do have a sense of achievement at the end of the day. {Let’s see how much a firefighter earns.|Without more ado, let’s determine the wages of a firefighter.

firefighter salary Athens Texas
*Image Credit – BLS.gov

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Around $49,000 is the mean annual income a firefighter would make. A median of around $46,000 is the median. There are many factors which affect this number including the size of the population and the education that a firefighter has gone through. Below is a list of these aspects and how they could increase or decrease your salary being a firefighter.

Location Matters

The location of the fire department is a main aspect in deciding someone’s salary. Factored to that will be the need of the population of fighters. A place where spontaneous wildfires are likely, have a higher need for firemen than other areas. Currently, New York pays their firemen the most at about 70% above the national mean. While Columbia pays the lowest at 38%.

firefighter average salary by state Athens Texas
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Education Qualification

To become a firefighter, one usually just needs to have studied a course relevant to fire science in high school. In this area of firefighting, having achieved an education is favourable. There are two significant reasons for this. This will show you have the required understanding and knowledge in firefighting. Another one is for the department to spend less on you just before becoming an asset in the government. As a result, they could afford to pay you more. A bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree in fire science can help you advance your career and earn quite a bit more. A master’s degree may help a lot more.

Working Experience

Experience is commonly a major key in deciding someone’s income. In case a firefighter has a field experience of approximately Twenty years, his revenue may rise to 50% This is extremely high when compared to other jobs which commonly see a 15-20% rise in the same period of time.

Accreditation and Training

As being a fireman, you will need to know the fundamentals of EMT to even apply for the job. Nevertheless, apart from learning the fundamental, you can go more and learn the advanced certifications. Having a deeper list of accreditations and trainings provide you with a chance of acquiring a bigger earnings. Besides, this also gives you another choice should you opt shift careers later.

Industry

When all’s said and done, you need to receive your income. Per BLS records, it’s not the government employers who pay out firefighters more, but it is the private companies. This includes firms that deal with waste management, coal as well as oil production, and metal product production. On the other hand, the local and also the state government still employ the most number of firefighters.

Other Advantages

One of the best things about having a government career is that there’s a bunch of other rewards that come with it. As being a firefighter, you certainly get benefits like dental and health insurance. However you also get covered sick leaves and reimbursement for a few specific tuition fees. But then again, advantages may differ from what department you are into.

As being a physician might have a better earning as compared with being a fireman. On the other hand, at the end of the day, you become a hero in someone’s eyes. Therefore, if you wish to be that hero, know the requirements to be a firefighter now!

Athens Firefighter Employment Outlook

firefighter job outlook Athens Texas
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The job outlook is a crucial aspect while deciding which career to get into. You wouldn’t want to select your favorite career option simply to realize that it going down the drain in a couple of years. You can find out such info from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The career outlook for public servants is always on the rise since due to the growing population. So, what does the future hold for the common fireman? Let’s find out.

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There are currently about 300,000 firemen employed in america. There is a steady progress of 5% for the next several years till 2024. This is the average growth rate of any normal career. Which means that there would be about 12,000 new jobs by 2024. But, this also means that there will be that much more people hoping to get the job as well. Thus, there will be some competition. This is mainly due to the low education specifications and also the attractions of a public service job. The pay may not be quite high, but the benefits make up for that. It’s estimated that there might be about 100 people competing for the same position by 2024.

firefighter job outlook by state Athens Texas
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How To Become A Firefighter

Much like any other professional career to pursue, a procedure is important to follow. Primary requirement is you should have the necessary education. You need to have your diploma or you’ll never get hired. As a firefighter, there are not too many education requirements that you need to possess. However, there are many other needs such as physical, medical and legal that one should have to qualify for being a firefighter. We’ll go further in details to much better understand the prerequisites.

Educational Qualification

High school diploma and a degree in advanced schooling are the fundamental prerequisites to be qualified as a firefighter. Subjects you gained do not matter much. Nevertheless, having some courses in fire sciences does help your cause. That will provide you a backgrounder of the profession you are about to go into.

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A lot of those who intended to be a firefighter, they elect to pursue a degree in college after earning their diploma in high school. You need to be at least 18 years old to meet the age requirement. That’s a primary reason why most of the aspirants are not be eligible after graduating in high school. If you would like to have choices later if you choose to be a firefighter, much better choose a degree with subjects in firefighting, you may need them. Courses that teach you how to save people, handle hydraulic equipment like ladders or some other related things are a major plus.

It’s optionally available, you may pursue a graduate studies in that same field. The graduate studies you attain can assist you land a promotion. While gaining your education, you always remember that age limit requirement of 28 to 30 years old limit for you to be qualified too. As a result, if you wish to expend most of your life as a firefighter, you should never focus too much on education.

Paramedic Training

Every single firefighter is needed to have an EMT certification. The one required is the EMT-B or the EMT-Basic. This certifies firefighters that they know what to undertake in case of fires or in accidents. The training might last for up to 1 year. If one desires, they can choose to pursue further studies in the field Emergency Medical Services and become a paramedic. This helps them gain an edge over other applicants and hopefully, a better salary. In some instances, fire victims rescued are attended by medical expert which are firefighters as well.

Texas State Driving License

In many states, hiring of firefighter needs an applicant to possess experience in driving. A driving license to each applicant is necessary so they can be useful in case of emergency where for an instance no other fire truck driver is available. It also functions as an ID proof to validate the applicant’s age.

Legal Track Record

In certain cases, a firefighter is compared as a policeman. The same as policemen, firefighters also undertake life-style check just before getting employed. It definitely needed that an aspiring firefighters must have a clean record, no criminal record. If it is found that there was one, or the firefighter was previously busted, then that candidate is promptly disqualified. Having said that, there are cases where a pardoned individual of his crimes are approved but not all department practice that.

Physical Fitness

One of the main attributes that a firefighter must have is physical durability. Instances like lifting fire victims or objects to free victims arise most of the time in rescue tasks, consequently, firefighter’s upper body strength is important. Not only body strength is need, firefighter’s endurance should be high as they must deal lots of aspects like running even in harsh surroundings. No one become a firefighter without going through heavy and extremely detailed physical examinations.

Free From Medical Ailments

Suffocations in rescue tasks happen and firefighters learn how to deal with it. Firefighters have face masks to overcome those circumstances but even so, if have respiratory condition, this may hinder your chances. Individuals having respiratory conditions could not operate such heavy machinery with precision under suffocating situations. Thus, candidates are checked accurately for any such diseases that may cause them harm in such cases.

There a lot of boxes that must be ticked while picking out a firefighter. If you really feel you tick these boxes, then go and find out how long it takes to be a firefighter!

Athens Firefighter Job Description

Firefighters are your everyday heroes who work together to put out fires and also help people when they get stuck in such situations. They are around in rescue tasks you see in common incidents, not just fire. Which means that the image of firefighters saving a kitten stuck on a tree usually shown on televisions is actually true. Apart from the common job they are doing, firefighters help educate people to prevent fire from happening. In certain cases, they are supposed to check causes of fire and dig deep in to the case because of the chance of an arsonist.

Extinguishing Fires

This is the major role of firefighters. When on-duty, these people stay in their firehouse to respond to a call as quickly as possible. When a distress call is got, firefighters together with their devices rush to the fire area to extinguish it. Several of the fire trucks are just meant to deliver wounded people.

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Firefighting is a team work. Each member already has its specified job. A particular firefighter maybe responsible for controlling the ladder and hose. Others are responsible for controlling the water flow and extinguishing the fire. These individuals work under the order of their respective commanding officers. Given that they work in shifts, each unit has their own commanding officer.

Saving People

All firefighters are required to be qualified as an EMT. This is required given that one of the major duties of the firefighters are to save people. A firefighter may need this technical skills if a victim is cornered in fires. Nevertheless, not all rescue operations that the firefighters undertake are fire related. There are situations that a fireman comes first in the scene. These casualties might be caused due to natural disasters, motor crashes or several other reasons. Firefighter needs to work to save the victim. This is certainly where a firefighters know-how in EMT comes in handy.

Teach People

Fire science is among the skills a firefighter possesses. The amount of knowledge will depend on which degree they have pursued in the field or which course they have studied. Consequently, they help most of the people by educating them about ways to prevent fires. This is commonly done just after they visit a fire site as well as extinguish it. Otherwise, they also visit schools and also other areas to positively educate people about fires, how to avoid fires and if necessary, how to extinguish them.

Investigating Fires

To educate people regarding how to avoid fires, the firemen/firewomen should first find the source of the fire. Understanding the causes can help firefighters prevent fire for the same scenario happen again. Sometimes, it is possible that criminals with malicious intent set such fires. It is then the job of the firefighters to investigate and provide more hints to the police officers about who started it. Firefighters specializing in investigations related to fire are called arson investigators. Together with the police, they work to investigate possible arsonists.

There is no doubt why we must not call them our life savers and unsung heroes. They do rescue lives through extinguishing fires and they develop also our appreciation to them. Consequently, if learning about their responsibilities fired you up, see what education prerequisites you have to become one!