PathSource - FIRE SAFETY INSPECTOR: Riding The Life Wave

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FIRE SAFETY INSPECTOR: Riding The Life Wave

About this video

Florence, a fire safety inspector, is currently the coordinator in charge of false alarms. Her typical day involves checking on false fire alarm calls and discerning what the cause was and taking care of billing and accounting. She is originally from France, but came to the US on what turned out to be a permanent vacation.

Degree: Foreign Languages - Philosophy

Job Title: Fire Safety Inspector

Employer: Sarasota County Fire Department

Job Summary: Fire Inspectors and Investigators

Job Description

Fire inspectors visit and inspect buildings and other structures, such as sports arenas and shopping malls, to search for fire hazards and to ensure that federal, state, and local fire codes are met. They also test and inspect fire protection and fire extinguishing equipment to ensure that it works. Fire investigators determine the origin and cause of fires by searching the surrounding scene and collecting evidence.

On-the-Job Training

Moderate-term on-the-job training

Additional Info

Most fire inspectors and investigators are required to have work experience in a related occupation. Some fire departments or law enforcement agencies require investigators to have a certain number of years within the organization or to be a certain rank, such as lieutenant or captain, before they are eligible for promotion to an inspector or investigator position.

Certification Requirement

Required by the National Fire Protection Association

Quick Facts

Average salary

National Statistic Change Location

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$35,000 - $85,000

Projected Job Growth

0 to 9 percent

Typical schedule

Full-time

Typical workplace

Travel, Indoor, Office, Outdoor

Personal Qualities

Detail oriented, Problem solving skills, Verbal communication skills, Written communication skills

Educational Path

Education Requirement

High school degree
Trade/vocational School

Recommended Education Degree

High school degree
Associate degree

Recommended Majors

Fire Protection
Engineering
Quality Control and Safety Technology
Chemistry

Related Careers

Firefighters
Police and Detectives
Private Detectives and Investigators

View Detailed Career Data

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P3.instances[0].transcript.parse_transcript_data({"transcript":"My name is Florence Robins. I'm a fire safety inspector. I was an inspector for about a year and right now I'm the coordinator in charge of the false alarms. When sometimes there's an alarm, if somebody burned popcorn or if a device is not working, the next day we come, we inspect it, and then we file a report. I'm in charge of that program. And like some other inspectors that go and inspect businesses and make sure everything is safe, I'm handling the false alarm section. So my work is more billing. It's more checking to see if it was coding right, what exactly happened, what do we need to do to fix it, and I'm more an accounting in facts and in number. That is more my job. My education, as you surely can hear it, I'm French. I grew up in France. There I graduated high school. Then I went to university. We call it university, not college. The university was Lyon 3, number three, and Lyon is my city. And I studied foreign languages and philosophy. I have the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts. I moved when I graduated. I moved to the United States for what was supposed to be a vacation and ended up staying. For many years I worked for the travel industry and had children. And I needed to have a job that was more eight to five since I didn't have family here to help me with the children. I applied and found an administrative assistant position with the county, with the fire department. I got that position and when I got there I was very interested. I always admired and respected the firefighter and the fire department itself. And the Fire Marshal pushed me to take additional classes to learn about fire safety. So while I was working as an administrative assistant, I took my classes, got my license, and a few months after I got a license a position opened up and I became an inspector. and as I said, first I did regular inspection and then I moved to false alarms. If I could go back in time and either know something better or change, I would think about my life plan very early on. I guess with life we start with something, we do some certain studies and then we change jobs, and then you end up when you're older and you don't necessarily have a career that you did for 20, 30 years. So I think I wish I had thought about a career and stuck to it my whole work life. It would have been really good to now be able to say I've been in the fire department for 20 years. So I wish I had worked on my life plan before instead of riding the life wave. What to expect in our job, what we don't know before we do it is how the public sees us. We're not seen as a fire department. We're seen as code enforcer. And as such people and not very necessary happy to see us. We go tell them what they're not doing right. We tell them to fix things, which costs them money. We give them a bill. So I was not expecting people to be not very happy to see us. I thought they would see the fire department and that is not what they see. They see code enforcement. So you have to be ready for it and expect it. ","file":{"id":255777,"video_id":"2700155153001","name":"69908414","duration":233130,"thumbnail_url":null}});