The Datum Report

Occupation 3313 · Associate professional occupations

Fire service officers (watch manager and below)

Half of full-time fire service officers (watch manager and below) in the UK earn more than £44,033 a year, and half earn less.

Fire service officers (watch manager and below) co-ordinate and participate in firefighting activities, provide emergency services in the event of accidents or bomb alerts, and advise on fire prevention.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic requirements, although applicants to fire control roles must demonstrate basic literacy and numeracy, keyboard and communication skills. Applicants to fire-fighter roles must pass psychological, physical and medical tests. Some Fire and Rescue Services operate direct entry recruitment processes to managerial operational roles. There is a minimum age limit of 18 years for entry to fire-fighter and control operator roles and DBS checks can be required.

What the work involves

• inspects premises to identify potential fire hazards and to check that firefighting equipment is available and in working order and that statutory fire safety regulations are met
• arranges fire drills and tests alarm systems and equipment
• travels to fire or other emergency by vehicle and locates water mains if necessary
• operates hose pipes, ladders, chemical, foam, gas or powder fire extinguishing appliances
• rescues people or animals trapped by fire or other emergency situations such as flooding and administers first aid
• removes goods from fire damaged premises, clears excess water, makes safe any structural hazards and takes any other necessary steps to reduce damage to property
• attends and deals with bomb alerts and accidents involving spillage of hazardous substances
• advises on fire safety measures in new buildings
• supervises a watch

Also called

Fire engineer · Fire safety officer · Firefighter · Watch manager (fire service)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for fire service officers (watch manager and below), full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 9 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Non-commissioned officers and other ranks · Police officers (sergeant and below) · Prison service officers (below principal officer) · Protective service associate professionals n.e.c.