Very hard to get hired, very good once you are. Pension, 24-hour shifts, and a Job Bank median of about $95,000 a year.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $95,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $60,000 at the lower end to about $128,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$8,300 to $17,300 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Ontario and Quebec. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$95,000
Lower end
$60,000
Upper end
$128,000
Job Bank's national median for firefighters is $45.79 an hour, about $95,000 a year at 40 hours a week. Full-time departments pay you from your first day and raise your pay in steps each year until you reach first-class firefighter, the top rate. Volunteer and paid-on-call firefighters in small towns earn a small payment per call or per year instead.
$50.00 an hour
The median in British Columbia, about $104,000 a year, the highest of any province
The Northwest Territories ($58.13) and Yukon ($56.49) are higher still. Ontario's median is $48.53 and Quebec's $40.17. Nova Scotia is lowest at $37.98.
Roughly, all in
$8,300 to $17,300
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a one year pre-service firefighter program at a cheaper college plus the candidate testing, which covers the CPAT (Candidate Physical Ability Test), the written test and the medical. The high end is a more expensive program, the full testing fees, and the DZ class licence (the class for large trucks with air brakes) at about one thousand five hundred dollars. Unlike policing, most Canadian fire departments expect you to arrive already certified, so you pay for the training yourself rather than being paid to take it. NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 1001 and 1072 certification is usually included in the college program.
Unlike police, most fire departments expect you to arrive already certified. You pay for the training yourself.
A defined-benefit pension
One that pays a set amount every month for life. In Ontario it is OMERS (the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System), where most firefighters can retire on a full pension at 60, or from 50 with 30 years of service.
24-hour shifts
Typically 7 shifts a month, leaving many days off.
Health, dental, extended benefits
Cancer coverage
Workers' compensation assumes certain cancers in firefighters are caused by the job, so you do not have to prove it.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Get certified, get fit, then compete. Quebec sets its own required training by city size: tap Quebec route to add it.
High school diploma
Grade 12
The minimum. Sciences and phys ed help.
NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) certification
1 year
Outside Quebec, most candidates take a one-year pre-service firefighter program at a college (Seneca, Durham, Lambton, the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC), Lakeland in Alberta). It includes NFPA 1001 Firefighter I and II, 1072 hazmat and often DZ (heavy truck) licence training.
Medical and fitness certifications
Weeks
Emergency medical responder or higher, CPR, and the physical test (CPAT or similar).
Apply and compete
Up to 3 years or more
Departments hire in rounds, and far more people apply than there are spots. Many candidates apply for a few years before getting hired.
Recruit training and probation
About 1 year
Department academy of 8 to 16 weeks, then a probationary year.
Trades experience
Electricians, mechanics and carpenters are prized.
Paramedic or medical training
Most calls are medical, not fire.
Volunteer firefighting
Experience plus references.
Fitness
The physical test is hard and you are timed.
Ontario's 2022 regulation requires firefighters to hold NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) certification for each service they perform, with most deadlines on July 1, 2026 and technical rescue on July 1, 2028. Quebec sets its own by city size: the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies), Pompier I or Pompier II. Other provinces, such as Alberta and Nova Scotia, do not require it by law, though most departments hire only certified people. Certification transfers between provinces through IFSAC (an international fire accreditation body) and Pro Board seals on your certificates.
In Quebec the training the law requires depends on the size of the city, and big cities want a vocational diploma rather than a college program.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
A diploma gets you into the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies). Without one, you need Secondary IV language of instruction, second language and math, and to be at least 16.
DEP in Fire Safety Intervention (5322)
About 15 months
1,185 hours at the IPIQ (Institut de protection contre les incendies du Québec) in Laval and Quebec City, Campus Notre-Dame-de-Foy or the Académie des pompiers. The English version (5822) has no groups right now.
Fire Safety Techniques DEC (311.A0), optional
2 years
About 2 years more, a DEC (Diploma of College Studies) open only to DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) holders, at Collège Montmorency or Campus Notre-Dame-de-Foy. You need a class 4A driver's licence and a physical test.
Apply to a municipal fire service
Varies
Cities of more than 200,000 people require the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies). Smaller towns can hire you first and train you.
Pompier I or II, in smaller towns
Up to 4 years
Certificates from the ENPQ (École nationale des pompiers du Québec, the provincial fire school). Pompier I for towns under 25,000 people, Pompier II up to 200,000. You have up to 48 months after hiring.
Officer, later
Years in
Officer I needs at least 1 year as a firefighter plus Pompier II, the DEP, or Pompier I with the rural officer course.
Set by Quebec's regulation on working in a municipal fire service. Pompier I and II are given by the provincial fire school.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Primary care paramedic diploma
The strongest single credential in a fire application.
A Red Seal trade
Departments love people who can fix things.
DZ or Class 3 (heavy truck) licence
Required to drive the truck at most departments.
Fire prevention or inspection certifications
A path off the truck later in your career.
Team sports
Departments look for people who work well in a crew.
Community volunteering
Swift-water, ice-rescue, rope-rescue courses
Show initiative.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You live at the hall for 24 hours. Morning truck and equipment checks, training drills, station chores, then calls: medical emergencies make up most of them, followed by alarms, vehicle collisions, and actual fires. Between calls you eat, work out and train as a crew. Then you have three or four days off.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Toronto Fire Services, the largest fire service in Canada, only takes applications from people who already hold NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 1001 Firefighter Levels I and II, an EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) certificate and a truck licence with an air brake endorsement.
From that date, Ontario fire departments may only send firefighters to fight fires, cut people out of cars or handle hazardous materials if they are certified for that exact job.
The Ontario Fire College has trained firefighters since 1949 and now runs more than 300 courses a year, online and at regional training centres.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Police and fire first, then the rest of the field. See every career in law and public safety.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
Tell us about this page. A person reads every message.
No email app on this device? Use Gmail instead: report a mistake in Gmail or say what you like in Gmail.