SFD Chief Champions Curiosity
Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins highlighted the importance of curiosity and adaptability for emergency services personnel in a recent interview. He emphasized that successful SFD applicants demonstrate a genuine interest in serving Seattle's communities and that the best firefighters are those who continually learn.
- Chief Harold Scoggins began his career as a U.S. Air Force firefighter before spending 25 years at the Glendale Fire Department, rising to Fire Chief. When appointed to lead the SFD in 2015, one of his key directives was to intensify the recruitment of a diverse workforce. - The next application period for entry-level firefighters opens on October 7, 2025, and closes on November 25, 2025. Following the testing process, a hiring register will be established in March 2026, with the first recruit class scheduled to begin in August 2026. - Candidates must pass two initial exams administered by the National Testing Network (NTN): the FireTEAM test and the Public Safety Self-Assessment (PSSA1). The FireTEAM exam is a video-based test evaluating human relations, mechanical aptitude, math, and reading skills, taking approximately two hours to complete. - The top 1,500 candidates who pass the initial exams will be invited to the oral board interviews, which are tentatively scheduled for late January to early February 2026. Interviews for departments in Western Washington often utilize behavioral questions best answered using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format. - The starting salary for a Firefighter Recruit is $41.56 per hour, with contractual step increases that raise monthly pay from approximately $8,177 to $10,124 after 42 months. Premium pay between 5 and 20 percent is available for specialty assignments. - A significant portion of the job is EMS-focused, as approximately 80% of the Seattle Fire Department's calls are medical in nature. All Seattle firefighters are certified emergency medical technicians. - The SFD recruit academy is known to be demanding, utilizing the "IFSTA Essentials of Fire Fighting and Fire Department Operations, 7th Edition" as its primary text. The department also provides its own Basic Skills Manual covering specific equipment and manipulative skills. - Station life typically involves working 24-hour shifts, and the culture is often described as a family unit where firefighters live together during their shifts. An interest in
