Fire Safety Engineer
What the work is
Studies, designs and develops fire protection strategies to analyse, prevent and mitigate fire risk in various structures and environments.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Designs fire detection, fire suppression and fire control systems and equipment
- Assesses and rates fire risks to ensure buildings comply with existing fire safety legislation and regulations
- Analyses building designs to develop fire strategies, including fire escape routes, safety systems and facilities for fire services
- Studies causes of fires and provides solutions to prevent them
- Uses computer modelling to simulate and understand fire, test safety levels and validate fire prevention systems
- Designs strategies to protect people and their environment from fire
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in the engineering workshop of a regional hospital, where the machines that help care for patients are tested and repaired. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A machine the ward thought was broken is back in service within the hour
- Staff tell you a new device is easier to use because of a change you suggested
- You design a small fix that makes a clumsy piece of equipment safer to handle
Hard days
- Two wards want the same machine and only one is available
- A device fails a safety check on the day you most need it in use
- You are called away from a long project to deal with a fault that cannot wait
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 243936, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.