Wanting A Career As A Fire Prevention Officer.

murphthesmurf

Not sure what forum to put this under. I currently work as a fire alarm engineer. I'd like to move career to be a fire officer. Not fighting fires, but inspecting buildings etc. I feel my experience with the rules and regulations of fire alarms, extinguishers, and emergency lighting would be a good starting point. I'm unsure as to what course/courses I could do to help qualify me. It would have to be part time studying on evenings/weekends or open university type course. I think my best bet is to contact my local office, but thought I'd ask on here too incase I dont get a reply. Took a look at Athlone college website, but couldn't spot anything that stood out as being the type of course I'd need to do.
Any help appreciated, sorry if in wrong forum.

chris85

There is a level 7 ordinary degree in Fire Engineering at DIT. What sort of qualification do you have at present?

http://www.dit.ie/civilandbuildingservicesengineering/engineering-computation/fireengineering/

eyescreamcone

You will at least need a level 8 degree in engineering or science.
Historically most would have Civil Engineering degrees.
Some will have post grad qualifications from Trinity or UUJ.
Best of luck as they are not recruiting at the moment but this will change in the future.

murphthesmurf

Thanks to both of you. I only have qualifications in electrical/electronics and fire alarm certification. I'll look into the possibility of doing one of those courses on an evening or as open learning.
I'm kinda hoping my fire alarm knowledge will be a big help. Not meaning any offence to any fire officers reading this, but most don't seem to know much about fire alarm regulations at all. If the building has a fire panel on the wall and it gets serviced once a year then that seems to be all they look for. I've been to several places that fire officers have passed, but I would padlock the doors on.
Thanks again

eyescreamcone

murphthesmurf wrote: »

Thanks to both of you. I only have qualifications in electrical/electronics and fire alarm certification. I'll look into the possibility of doing one of those courses on an evening or as open learning.
I'm kinda hoping my fire alarm knowledge will be a big help. Not meaning any offence to any fire officers reading this, but most don't seem to know much about fire alarm regulations at all. If the building has a fire panel on the wall and it gets serviced once a year then that seems to be all they look for. I've been to several places that fire officers have passed, but I would padlock the doors on.
Thanks again

Fire alarms are only a small (but important) part of fire prevention.
There is an awful lot more to fire prevention than fire alarms.

Delancey

I have never heard of a Fire Officer that did not have a degree in Engineering or Architecture.

eyescreamcone

Delancey wrote: »

I have never heard of a Fire Officer that did not have a degree in Engineering or Architecture.

Most do.
However a few have Physics or Chemistry degrees.

amen

Historically most would have Civil Engineering degree

A lot also have degrees in Physics.

As mentioned the best thing to do is get level 8 in Engineering or Science then a Master in Fire Safety/Investigation.