Fort Worth Fire Department
Where the West begins. Protecting Fort Worth since 1873
- Location
- Fort Worth, Texas
- County
- Tarrant County
- Established
- 1873
Ready to Serve has no record of a current opening. Departments open and close testing on their own schedule, so check the official page before you rule it out.
Record figures
- 1,600
- Sworn personnel
- 45
- Stations
- 136,242
- Calls per year
About the department
No document cited for this section.
The Fort Worth Fire Department protects the nation's 13th-largest city with approximately 1,600 firefighters and EMTs operating from 45 stations organized into 8 battalions. In 2022, the department responded to 136,242 calls including 82,781 medical, 4,275 fire, and 49,186 other emergency calls. FWFD provides fire suppression, advanced life support EMS, hazardous materials response, dive rescue, and technical rescue services across a rapidly growing metropolitan area.
Pay
Source: Pay plan, checked Aug 19, 2026.
- Overtime
- Department spent $32.1M on overtime in 2025; constant staffing overtime to maintain 4-person crews
- Incentive pay
- Department-run academy trains firefighter trainees
- Civil service overtime for special events and disaster deployments
- Acting pay when working above rank after 40 hours/week
Fire Civil Service Classifications, Salary Schedule for FY 2025-2026 / effective October 1, 2025
Salary steps
Source: City of Fort Worth, REVISED FY2026 SALARY SCHEDULE, Fire Civil Service Classifications FY 2025-2026, checked Aug 19, 2026.
- Firefighter (56-hour, Y01/1032)
Start (upon academy graduation)
$69,790.00
Year 1
$73,237.00
Year 2
$76,901.00
Step 11 (14 years)
$97,016.00
- Trainee (Y17/1026)
Trainee
$39,915.00
- Adopted FY 2025-2026 firefighter start is $69,790 / step 11 $97,016.
- Live recruiting on 2026-08-19 still shows $67,000 after graduation and $95,000 top (https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/hr/careers/firerecruitment, 2026-08-19). The recruiting Salary Projection DOCX is still labeled FY 2024-2025 and prints start $67,757 / top $94,190.
- Those figures are not averaged here. The adopted table is cited for startingPay.
Benefits
No document cited for this section.
- Health Insurance
- Life, health, dental, and vision insurance through City of Fort Worth
- FWERF Pension
- Fort Worth Employees' Retirement Fund: vesting after 5 years. Rule-of-80 or age 65 with 5 years. Early retirement at age 50+ with reduced pension.
- Paid Time Off
- 12-hour shifts (standard) or 24/48 pilot program. Holiday and vacation accrual.
- Union Representation
- Fort Worth Firefighters Association representation with collective bargaining
What a candidate must hold or clear
Eligibility
No document cited for this section.
- Age
- Cannot have reached 36th birthday by date of entry-level exam
- Education
- High school diploma, GED, or 12 semester hours from accredited college
- Certifications
- The Firefighter Trainee page read 2026-08-12 does not list TCFP or EMT as a hire requirement. Confirm the live posting.
- Fitness
- Physical assessment test, aerobic capacity run, prolonged walking and lifting up to 100 lbs
- Residency
- Must live within 30 minutes of designated station within 6 months of employment; Fort Worth residents receive 2 bonus points
- Background
- No felony convictions; polygraph exam required
Training and education
No document cited for this section.
- Recruit Academy
7 months
- Approximately 7-month academy: 6 weeks EMT-B curriculum + fire school meeting TCFP requirements
- State Certification
- TCFP Basic Fire Suppression exam at end of academy; state firefighter examination required
11 recorded
Assignments and specialties
No document cited for this section.
Operations
- Structural Firefighting
- Advanced Life Support
- Wildland Firefighting
Technical rescue
- Technical Rescue
- Dive/Water Rescue
- Swift Water Rescue
Prevention and investigation
- Hazardous Materials
- Fire Investigations
- Fire Inspections
Support and community
- ARFF (Airport Rescue)
- Community Risk Reduction
Living in Fort Worth
No document cited for this section.
- 1,012,396
- Population
- $340,000
- Median home price
- 99
- Cost-of-living index
- 13th-largest city in the U.S. and one of the fastest-growing in Texas
- Aerospace and aviation hub with major defense industry presence
- Fort Worth Cultural District features world-class museums including Kimbell Art Museum
- Lower cost of living than Austin and Dallas with comparable amenities
- Historic Fort Worth Stockyards and vibrant downtown entertainment district
- DFW International Airport within 20 minutes for global connectivity
Accreditation
No document cited for this section.
- Held
- NFPA Compliant Operations
Contacting the department
No document cited for this section.
Applications, testing dates and eligibility decisions are handled by the department. Ready to Serve does not take applications, forward candidates, or speak for any agency.
- Recruiting email
- FWFDRecruiting@fortworthtexas.gov
- Phone
- (817) 392-7772
About this record
- Compiled by
- Ready to Serve is a free public resource for first-responder candidates. It is not a government agency, not affiliated with any department listed here, and not a recruiter for any department. Figures come from each department's own published documents, cited with the date they were read.
- Affiliation
- Ready to Serve is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorised to speak for this department, its city, or any of its officials. Department names, insignia and marks belong to their owners and appear here only to identify the agency being described.
- How to read a stamp
- Published by the department means the agency supplied the section or authorised its publication.Read by Ready to Serve means a named public document is cited under the heading, with the date it was read.A section without a stamp was assembled by Ready to Serve without a document to cite. Confirm details with the department before you rely on them.
- Sources checked
- 1 cited document on this record. Most recent check Aug 19, 2026.
- Corrections
- Anything on this page can be corrected, removed, or claimed by the department at no charge.Write to us about this record