Colorado Firefighter Salary 2026: What 15 Departments Publish

The short answer. There is no single Colorado firefighter salary. The U.S. Fire Administration registry file a candidate can download today lists 82 Career and Mostly-career departments in Colorado, of 310 registered. This page opens 15 of those against the city's own pay plan, ordinance, collective bargaining agreement, or recruiting page, read 2026-08-29. 9 of the 15 publish an annual certified starting salary. 6 do not: Denver's 2026 grade table was not extracted; Arvada's 2026 recruiting tiers disagree with an expired CBA; Pueblo prints monthly figures only; Greeley prints a recruit and a 37-month Firefighter I without a separate certified-hire start; Grand Junction prints hourly rates we do not annualize; Longmont publishes no dollar. We never average the rest of the 82 into a number no city prints.

Last verified: 2026-08-29.

The national picture, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics medians beside these department figures, is on the firefighter salary guide 2026.

This is not a statewide census and it is not an apply-now board. None of these 15 has a dated firefighter apply-by a candidate can act on today from the documents opened for this collection. Several doors are closed in words. ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, Salary.com, Indeed, and degree-marketing sites are not sources for this page.

Recruit pay and certified-hire pay are two columns. They are not the same job. A 2026 document and a 2027 recruiting table are not averaged into one "Colorado start." Thornton and South Metro rows are labeled 2027. Denver's live Civil Service booklet, revised June 2, 2026, still says 2025 SALARY $69,087. The recruiting page still says $66,430 as of January 1, 2024. Those two figures disagree. The 2026-2027 contract is real and adopted; its dollar table is not on this page.

The Texas comparison, built the same way at a larger N, is Texas firefighter salary 2026 by department. California, built the same way, is here. Missouri, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio and Florida, built the same way, are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Start from the fire pathway if you are still mapping the credential.

What do these 15 pay documents actually show?

Three column definitions, because most published comparisons blur roles and the blur is where the misleading numbers come from.

• Recruit / academy is the printed trainee, recruit, or developing rate when the city prints one as an annual. A blank cell means the city did not print a separate annual academy line, or printed only a monthly or hourly rate. It does not mean the academy pays the certified rate.
• Starting (certified) is the first annual firefighter grade the document names as a certified or post-academy start. For Aurora that is Firefighter IV $70,748, not Firefighter I $108,843. For Boulder, 4th Class is the starting position, so recruit and start are the same cell. Empty means we will not invent the number.
• Top firefighter step is the highest printed firefighter-rank annual before promotion, when the document prints one.
• Source is the document title, link, effective date printed on the document where it prints one, and the date we read it.
• Every annual figure is base pay. No overtime, no assignment pay, no education stipend, unless a note names a printed incentive.

The table lists the 9 that publish an annual certified start. The 6 that do not are not blank cells inside that table.

9 Colorado fire departments that publish an annual certified starting salary, with recruit pay, top firefighter step, hiring window, and the source document.

Department	Recruit / academy	Starting (certified)	Top firefighter step	Hiring window	Source
Thornton Fire Department Thornton · FDID 00175 · 2027	$76,545	$84,096	$120,099.60	closed	City of Thornton Firefighter Recruitment, 2027 annual base pay table Read Aug 29, 2026
Aurora Fire Rescue Aurora · FDID 00505	not published	$70,748	$108,843	closed	Agreement Between City of Aurora and Local 1290 IAFF, January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2026 Read Aug 29, 2026 · effective Jan 1, 2026
Colorado Springs Fire Department Colorado Springs · FDID 04118 · 2026	not published	$70,764	$96,300	closed on NTN 3375 August 6, 2026, 11:59 p.m.; city testing-process page still says now open	Colorado Springs Fire Department 2026 Pay Chart Read Aug 29, 2026 · effective Dec 21, 2025
Poudre Fire Authority Fort Collins · FDID 06960 · 2026	$78,896.07	$101,437.81	$112,708.67	closed; not currently hiring career firefighters	2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement file (cover: effective January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026), IAFF Local 1945, Appendix A Read Aug 29, 2026 · effective Jan 1, 2026
West Metro Fire Rescue Lakewood · FDID 05909 · 2026	$73,184.43	$112,591.43	$112,591.43	undated; recruit page prints no open/close calendar	West Metro Fire Rescue Firefighter Recruit, Benefits 2026 Developing Firefighter Wage Schedule Read Aug 29, 2026
Boulder Fire-Rescue Boulder · FDID 01315 · 2026	$77,361.43	$77,361.43	$110,516.33	closed; no open opportunity at this time	City of Boulder and IAFF Local 900 agreement, Pay Period #1 2026 Salary Schedule Read Aug 29, 2026 · effective Jan 1, 2026
South Metro Fire Rescue Centennial · FDID 00520 · 2027	$83,980	$84,805	$121,150	firefighter closed (next public door early 2027); paramedic headline still says open, deadline August 28, 2026 11:59 p.m. MST already passed	SMFR Firefighter and Paramedic Careers, 2027 Compensation Read Aug 29, 2026
Westminster Fire Department Westminster · FDID 00190 · 2026	$78,208	$78,208	$111,716.80	closed; 2026 Firefighter/Firefighter Paramedic application is now closed	City of Westminster 2026 Amended Pay Plan, Non-Exempt Fire Union Commissioned Pay Plan, IAFF Local 2889 Read Aug 29, 2026
North Metro Fire Rescue Broomfield · FDID 00180 · 2026	not published	$80,795	$115,421	undated; lateral page actively recruiting paramedic-certified applicants	IAFF Local 2203 CBA, Exhibit D January 1, 2026 (amended and extended through December 31, 2026) Read Aug 29, 2026 · effective Jan 1, 2026

Dataset covers 15 departments opened this collection, all 15 partial. The table lists the 9 that publish an annual certified starting salary. The 6 with no annual certified start live in the gaps section. Thornton and South Metro rows are 2027 tables; the rest are 2026 documents. Sources read Aug 29, 2026. Confirm the current rate with the department before you make a career or relocation decision on it.

Why isn't there a statewide starting salary?

Because Colorado does not publish one, and averaging 9 department starts across two calendar years would be our arithmetic, not a city's. Instruction 43's Texas clone uses the same rule: null is a value, conflicts are named, monthly and hourly schedules stay in the unit the city printed.

The USFA HTML state profile's "256" is NFIRS-reporting departments in 2023, not the Career/Mostly-career count. The clone denominator is 82 (Career 47 + Mostly career 35). Do not use 256.

Ten of those 82 are federal, state, military, park, or depot rows. They stay in the 82. They are flagged out of municipal pay the way Texas flags DoD rows. Fort Collins career fire is Poudre Fire Authority, not a city fire department. Lakewood's career department is West Metro Fire Rescue.

The remaining Career/Mostly-career departments after these 15 and those 10 flags are still gaps. This page is silent about them. Filling them with a Bureau of Labor Statistics statewide wage, or with an aggregator average, would make every sourced row on the page less trustworthy.

Which application doors are closed today?

None of these 15 is an open dated apply-now. Closed, in the city's own words:

West Metro, Arvada, Pueblo, Greeley, Grand Junction, Longmont, and North Metro send the reader to a portal or a process page with no calendar close on the documents fetched 2026-08-29. Grand Junction's process page says firefighter classes generally open in March. Longmont's June 4, 2026 job alert listed firefighter openings; the live MUNIS eligibility-list URL returns "could not be found. This job opening may have been filled or closed." North Metro's lateral page says it is actively recruiting paramedic-certified applicants, with no designated closing clock on that page. Denver's June 2, 2026 entry booklet tells the reader to check city job openings and prints no dated close.

Do not treat an undated portal as open. Confirm the live posting.

Why is Denver's starting pay two different numbers?

Because the city still publishes two, and the 2026 dollar table is not in the attachments this desk extracted.

• Become-a-Firefighter: Starting Pay: $66,430 (as of January 1, 2024).
• Entry-Level Firefighter Informational Booklet, revised June 2, 2026: 2025 SALARY $69,087 annually. The May 15, 2025 vintage prints the same $69,087.
• Lateral booklet, revised June 2, 2026, and the April 30, 2026 vintage: Firefighter 4th Grade: $69,087 under a 2025 SALARY header. Lateral hires are appointed to 4th Grade until academy completion.

Those figures disagree. They are not averaged. $69,087 is not relabeled as 2026 pay.

The 2026-2027 Collective Bargaining Agreement with Denver Firefighters IAFF Local 858 is real. City Council file 25-0950 was adopted July 21, 2025. Term 01/01/2026-12/31/2027. The Ordinance/Resolution Request names raise percents: 2% across-the-board effective 1/1/26, 3% effective 7/1/26, 2% effective 1/1/27, and 3% effective 7/1/26 again. That last date reprints 7/1/26; it does not print 7/1/27. This page prints the repeated date. It does not apply those percents to $69,087. Article XII of the agreement sits inside a 46.5 MB captain-exam study packet that was not fully extracted. Until that grade table is quoted, Denver's certifiedStart stays empty.

The EMT booklet's 2025 SALARY $58,458 is EMT pay, not firefighter pay. It is not on the firefighter row.

Where the city's own documents disagree

Arvada. Join Our Team labeled 2026 Salary Tiers Year 1 EMT $80,329.82 / Paramedic $88,362.80, through Year 4 $114,756.88 / $122,789.86. The 2024-2025 CBA Appendix A (term ended December 31, 2025) prints Firefighter 1 at $108,261.21 as of January 1, 2025. Both are printed here and not averaged. Stations: Join says 11; USFA FDID 05903 says 9.

Pueblo. Ordinance 11085, effective January 1, 2026, prints a monthly grid: Firefighter Entrance $5,985.17, Step 6 $8,109.91. The 2024-2026 IAFF Local 3 contract says 2026 Fire Fighter wages are "an average comparable jurisdictions," not a percentage. Both are city documents. The ordinance is the adopted dollar grid. Monthly stays monthly.

Colorado Springs. Recruiting 2026 Pay Chart trainee $5,324 a month; 2026 Salary Schedule PDF job 19409 $5,325. One dollar. NTN says 24 stations and over 500 uniformed firefighters; USFA says 21 stations and 427 career. Testing-process still says the February 2027 recruitment is open; NTN closed August 6, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.

Poudre Fire Authority. 2026 CBA Appendix A Introductory Firefighter $78,896.07. FAQ and position description still show $76,228.09 from the 2025 Pay Plan. Written-test close: hiring-process June 22, 2025, 12:59 a.m. vs FAQ June 21, 12:59 a.m. MDT.

Aurora. Appendix B 2026 Lieutenant 24-hour annual $118,435 vs 8-hour $128,435. Engineer 24-hour $119,118 vs 8-hour $119,728. Footnote says annual and monthly are informational. A 2027-2028 agreement is on the August 24, 2026 Council agenda and is union-ratified; it is not the current table until Council approves it.

Westminster. Become page whole dollars (Firefighter IV $111,716) vs 2026 Amended Pay Plan tenths (non-shift $111,716.80) vs shift ($111,704.32). Recruiting tracks the non-shift column, rounded.

South Metro. Two consecutive 2027 rows are both labeled Firefighter II ($109,035 and $121,150). The second is not silently renamed Firefighter I.

Greeley. Join Us writes EMT-B and Paramedic at job offer. Firefighter and Paramedic are separate Open Roles. The conjunction stands. The pay-table PDF still contains the older 2024 and 2025 appendices. 2026 is Appendix C only.

Which departments publish no annual certified start?

Grand Junction's Pay & Benefits page names Avg 2,912 Hours/Year next to hourly rates. Multiplying would be our arithmetic. The cells stay hourly: Recruit Firefighter $25 / Hour; Recruit Firefighter/Paramedic $33.50 / Hour.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the starting salary for a firefighter in Colorado?

There is no single figure. Across the 15 departments opened for this collection, 9 publish an annual certified starting salary and 6 do not. Denver, the largest career department in the USFA file (FDID 01601, 914 career firefighters), is in the empty group: the live CSC booklet still says 2025 SALARY $69,087 and the recruiting page still says $66,430 as of January 1, 2024. Those disagree, and the 2026 grade table was not extracted. Any page that gives you one "Colorado firefighter salary" is averaging jobs that are not the same job.

Which Colorado fire department pays the most at hire?

Among the 9 annual certified starts in this collection, West Metro Fire Rescue prints Base Salary $112,591.43 on its 2026 developing-firefighter wage schedule. That is a ranking of published certified starts among the departments we opened, not a statewide ranking. Poudre Fire Authority Firefighter I-A is $101,437.81 on the 2026 CBA. Several of the other 82 Career/Mostly-career departments are not in the table.

Why isn't Denver in the starting-pay table?

Because we will not pick between $66,430 (January 1, 2024 recruiting page) and $69,087 (2025 SALARY on booklets revised in 2026), and we will not apply the adopted 2% / 3% raise percents to either number. The row is in the gaps table with that reason. When Article XII of the 2026-2027 Local 858 agreement is quoted from a document a candidate can open, the row can gain a 2026 certifiedStart.

Is Colorado Springs hiring?

NTN job 3375 for the February 2027 Firefighter Trainee academy closed August 6, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. The city's own testing-process page still says the recruitment is now open. Those two sentences were retrieved the same day. This page prints both and does not write apply-now. The 2026 academy already started February 10, 2026.

Do I get paid during the academy?

Where the city prints an annual recruit or trainee line, that line is in the recruit column: Thornton Firefighter Recruit (2026) $76,545 on a 2027 table; West Metro 0-5 Months $73,184.43; Boulder 4th Class $77,361.43; Greeley Recruit $76,733; South Metro 2027 Paramedic/Firefighter Recruit $83,980; Westminster Fire Trainee $78,208. Colorado Springs prints academy pay as a monthly: $5,324 on the recruiting chart and $5,325 on the salary-schedule PDF. Grand Junction prints $25 / Hour. Denver and Longmont do not print an annual academy cell in the documents opened here.

Is this page an application window?

No. Temple, Midland, Longview, Denton, and Richardson are Texas hiring cycles with dated doors. This page is a pay sheet. Confirm the live posting on the city's own board before you treat any row as a job you can apply to this week.