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Fire lieutenant skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Kevin Walker,

Kevin Walker

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical fire lieutenant skills. We ranked the top skills for fire lieutenants based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 10.1% of fire lieutenant resumes contained emergency situations as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a fire lieutenant needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 fire lieutenant skills for your resume and career

1. Emergency Situations

Here's how fire lieutenants use emergency situations:

Assumed command at scene of incidents; directing subordinates in the best method for combating fires and coping with emergency situations.
Receive, verify and respond to emergency calls for fire, medical, hazardous materials, vehicle accident and emergency situations.

2. EMT

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) provide urgent and emergent patients who enter the emergency medical services (EMS) system for out-of-hospital emergency medical treatment and transportation. EMTs are trained to stabilise and evacuate patients in a variety of situations, from non-emergency to regular hospital transports to life-threatening emergencies. Under the supervision of a physician, EMTs work as part of a robust EMS response scheme.

Here's how fire lieutenants use emt:

Participate in continuing education opportunities for up-keeping of EMT certifications and recent medical procedures.
Teach the public about fire safety, precept and instruct both paramedic and EMT students during there rides with the department.

3. Life Safety

Life safety refers to the preventative measures put in place to protect employees while at work. This may include fire alarms, safety diagrams instructing employees how to evacuate the building, tutorial videos explaining the proper way to use a machine or piece of equipment, or warning signs placed through a manufacturing plant.

Here's how fire lieutenants use life safety:

Participate in life safety inspection activities and other fire prevention and public education activities as assigned.
Inspected fire/life safety equipment as required.

4. Hazardous Materials

Any substance or good that is harmful to human health as well as the environment are called hazardous materials. Such materials must be handled carefully to avoid any mishaps. Harmful gases. chemicals, strong medicines or drugs, radioactive elements required for radiation purposes, a human blood sample that carries germs, all of these are considered hazardous materials.

Here's how fire lieutenants use hazardous materials:

Skilled in firefighting, EMS, high angle rescue, back country rescue, and hazardous materials management.
Conducted training in fire suppression and hazardous materials response.

5. Fire Suppression

Fire suppression is the term used to describe any group of engineering systems designed to put out the fire in a building in the event of its unfortunate occurrence. Fire suppression systems are built to detect fire outbreaks and prevent them from escalating. The system usually comes with an alarm to alert residents so the fire can be extinguished on time before it spreads out.

Here's how fire lieutenants use fire suppression:

Performed fire suppression and Emergency Medical Services.
Experienced with fire suppression, ventilation, fire pump operations, investigation, and fire prevention.

6. Hazmat

Hazmat is a combination of the words ‘hazardous' and ‘material'. The meaning of this word is found in the integration of the aforementioned words -- which is dangerous or toxic material.

Here's how fire lieutenants use hazmat:

Responded to Medical, Fire and HazMat emergencies while serving as the incident commander.
Responded to and managed all Fire, Hazmat, and Medical emergencies at TMMK.

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7. Fire Prevention

Fire prevention skills are essential to investigate buildings to review that all local, state and federal fire regulations are followed. Apart from obtaining a certification from the NFPA, you should develop skills including the ability to communicate clearly, and an understanding of how fire prevention equipment and fire alarms work.

Here's how fire lieutenants use fire prevention:

Directed teams in fire fighting, fire prevention, and medical emergencies.
Conduct Fire Prevention/Fire Inspection Visits * Paramedic 1974-1985 * Rescue Technician 1985-1999

8. Ladders

Here's how fire lieutenants use ladders:

Determined ladder requirements, directed ladder placement, deployed personnel on ladders, and monitored ladder operations to ensure safety.
Directed and Performed Ladder Operations - Directed and performed operations involving ground and aerial ladders.

9. Fire Safety

Here's how fire lieutenants use fire safety:

Conducted fire safety inspections on commercial/residential/public buildings as well as giving fire safety tips and prevention to owners of structures.
Conducted building fire safety inspections.

10. Emergency Response

Here's how fire lieutenants use emergency response:

Oversee the dispatching of Fire and EMS emergency response vehicles for public safety emergency services.
Perform alarm monitoring and dispatching of emergency response for a single fire station.

11. Incident Command System

Incident command system is a standard format that dictates the control, command, and procedures of emergency responses. Its purpose is to provide a chain of command that first responders from different agencies can use in the event of emergencies. It makes the response system effective and eliminates confusion that may arise from the hierarchy. It was developed to address the challenges faced by inter-agency responses to wildfires in Arizona and California but is now being used in the entire United States.

Here's how fire lieutenants use incident command system:

Initiate the Incident Command System for all types of calls from the most minor medical to the multi alarm structure fire.
Directed emergency operations using the National Incident Command System.

12. Firefighting

Here's how fire lieutenants use firefighting:

Evaluate firefighting methods and apparatus performance regarding new equipment and equipment utilized during emergency calls.
Provide training for members to ensure that knowledge and skill levels are current with today s trends in firefighting and EMS.

13. Fire/EMS

Here's how fire lieutenants use fire/ems:

Achieve advanced levels of Fire/EMS management certification.
Have been an advocate for the advancement of the Fire/EMS system on many occasions.

14. NFPA

Here's how fire lieutenants use nfpa:

Provided educational talks and safety inspections to local businesses in accordance with OSHA and NFPA guidelines.
Ensured all training rosters were signed and supported OSHA, NFPA and State regulations.

15. Medical Services

Here's how fire lieutenants use medical services:

Company officer, supervising the work of subordinates and delivering emergency fire, rescue and medical services.
Administered emergency medical services such as advance life support in extremely dangerous and life-threatening situations.

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What skills help Fire Lieutenants find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on fire lieutenant resumes?

Kevin Walker

College of Business, Eastern Oregon University

Everyone has roughly the same basic skills required for a position, or they're simply unqualified. Skills that stand out tend to be those that go above and beyond the basics. For example: Do you speak a second (or more) language? Do you have education or training in advanced oral and written communications? Do you have proficiency in office suite applications, particularly in Excel? Have you gained expertise in grant writing? Have you trained in a specialty area such as rescue diving or high-angle rescue? Have you acquired specialty certifications through a recognized authority (particularly if your new department has a need for them and no resources to send someone to train)?

What soft skills should all fire lieutenants possess?

Kevin Walker

College of Business, Eastern Oregon University

In my opinion, the soft skills that are the most important, in no particular order, are emotional intelligence (the ability to 'read the room'), intercultural competency (the ability to interact with multiple cultures without offending everyone), the ability to work in a team environment (leading OR following), communication (especially under high-stress conditions), managing stress (poor stress management leads to health and performance issues), understanding conflict management and how to effectively deal with it, being open to constructive criticism, and understanding leadership. That's particularly important in that leadership is often equated with being a "born leader," which is mostly nonsense. You actually have to study leadership and learn to apply it. There are many leadership styles, and you have to match one to your personality. Understanding what works and what doesn't and, most importantly, WHY? This includes the ability to identify and understand leader/follower motivations so you can work effectively as a leader. Obviously, you can write a treatise on each of these soft skills, and many people have (and there are other recognized soft skills), but these are the soft skills that I've had the most experience and feedback as being most in demand.

What hard/technical skills are most important for fire lieutenants?

Kevin Walker

College of Business, Eastern Oregon University

Identifying the most important technical skills is rather dependent on the department and position being sought. Required skills are usually set by regulations, SOGs, or SOPs, so identifying those as 'most important' misses the point. They're a minimum job requirement. However, understanding of and adherence to established standards and training is absolutely critical! Emergency situations are not the place to wing it. Learning to 'read' a fire or EMS scene, learning to assess threats and evaluate resources and options quickly and accurately, and learning to apply resources effectively to minimize loss and maximize life and safety are as essential to a career as to how to connect a hose, climb a ladder, or start an IV.

Do you want to know more?

List of fire lieutenant skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a fire lieutenant resume and required skills for a fire lieutenant to have include:

Emergency Situations
EMT
Life Safety
Hazardous Materials
Fire Suppression
Hazmat
Fire Prevention
Ladders
Fire Safety
Emergency Response
Incident Command System
Firefighting
Fire/EMS
NFPA
Medical Services
Medical Emergencies

Fire Hazards
Safety Procedures
Advanced Life Support
Medical Care
ALS
SCBA
Public Education
Fire Service
Fire Equipment
Fire Protection
Emergency Operations
Resuscitation
Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus
Fire Station
Rescue Operations
Emergency Incidents

CPR
Emergency Calls
Fire Inspections
Incident Reports
Building Inspections
Fire Apparatus
Life Support
Medical Calls
Patient Care
Fire Scenes
Emergency Scenes
Fire Alarms
Training Programs
Fire Investigations
Ambulances

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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