Firefighting:

• Directs fire streams and extinguishes fires in a variety of situations including residential occupancies, commercial building, vehicle fires, and grass fires.
• Rescues victims from occupancies filled with heat, smoke, and toxic gases by entering occupancy and physically removing victims.
• Frees victims trapped in automobile accidents, truck accidents, airplane crashes, etc. using a variety of extrication tools.
• Advances fire hose lines up stairways, ladders, and fire escapes to extinguish fires in upper levels.
• Opens by force all types of doors and windows to gain entrance to areas involved in fire, using numerous manual and mechanical entry tools.
• Removes fire hose lines from fire apparatus and assists fire apparatus driver in Fire Department pumper connections.
• Removes fire debris after fire is extinguished to locate hidden fires and prevent rekindle.

Non-Emergency Duties:

• Assists in cleaning and maintaining apparatus quarters, building, equipment, grounds, and other related work as required.
• Pre-plans fires in occupancies to record information pertaining to location of fire                   hydrants, exposure hazards, life hazards, etc.
• Provides fire prevention and public fire safety education programs as necessary.
• Demonstrates firefighting tools, equipment, and emergency medical equipment in quarters to groups visiting stations when assigned.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:  To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each duty satisfactorily. Must successfully complete a City of Huntsville background investigation, a written test, physical agility test, oral interview, drug test and  physicians physical.  The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required at the time or hire or for continuation of employment.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, DEGREES, CERTIFICATES AND/OR LICENSE:

• High School diploma or equivalent.
• Must hold a Texas Driver’s License Class B exempt within two (2) years of hire.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Ability to cooperate with staff, and the public.
• Ability to work independently and with a team.
• Acts a representative presenting oneself as a calm, knowledgeable, efficient, and effective public servant.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of materials.
• Ability to work in a hectic, busy, and sometimes stressful environment.
• Ability to perform duties with minimal supervision.
• Thorough knowledge of firefighting techniques.
• Thorough knowledge of fire response boundaries.
• Thorough knowledge of life saving techniques.

LANGUAGE SKILLS:

• Ability to communicate effectively with employees, officials and the public.
• Ability to communicate effectively in both written and verbal form.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS:

• Ability to perform basic math skills – add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.REASONING SKILLS: 
• Ability to organize time and resources.
• Ability to define problems and deal with a variety of situations.
• Ability to think quickly, maintain self-control, and adapt to stressful situations.
• Ability to use good judgment and effectively solve problems.
• Ability to plan work and establish priorities

PHYSICAL WORK ENVIRONMENT:  The physical demands and work environment described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• An employee must regularly be required to stand, walk, sit, talk, and hear, use hands to finger, handle or feel.  Also regularly must be able to bend, stoop, twist, and reach with hands and arms.
• An employee may be asked on a regular basis to lift 50 pounds.
• Vision requirements are close, distance and color vision, peripheral and depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
• Employees may be expected to perform duties outdoors in all types of weather on emergency scenes.
• At emergency scenes the employee may be required to lift persons and objects in excess of 100 lbs.
• Employees at emergency scenes will be required to work at excessive heights via use of ladders or lifting devices and will be exposed to excessive heat, cold, wet and hazardous situations.