Lead Firefighter (Basic Life Support/Hazardous Materials Technician)

Duties
As a Lead Firefighter (Basic Life Support/Hazardous Material Technician), you will perform the following duties:

• Lead and direct a crew of firefighters assigned to a major piece of motorized firefighting equipment.
• Distribute and balance workload among firefighting personnel; check work in progress; and resolve simple, informal employee complaints.
• Prepare emergency run reports. Make immediate determination as to the manner in which the crew and equipment will be best utilized to fight structural, aircraft and hazardous materials fires.
• Conduct demonstrations and lectures to crew regarding firefighting techniques and fire protection and prevention methods.
• Instruct firefighters in elementary science as applied to firefighting (physics and chemistry, weights and measures, laws of motion, mechanics of gases, heat and expansion, combustion, and flow of water).
• Perform pre-fire planning by physically going through structures to become familiar with the layout, fire hazards, and location of fixed fire protection systems.
• Participate in practice drills and training classes for assigned crew in all phases of firefighting techniques and equipment maintenance and use.
• Respond to emergency calls for assistance and render preliminary medical care both on and off the installation sometimes encountering situations which may be life threatening.
• Use first aid equipment such as bag valve mask, oxygen supply and tubing, spinal immobilization collar and backboard, saline solution, stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, splints, bandages, etc.
• Use hydraulic tools to extricate victims from vehicles.
• Serve as a member of the Hazardous Material Technician Team responding to incidents that range from simple containment and clean-up to complex, unusually difficult incidents due to the wide variety of functions and hazards encountered.
• Direct a crew in the operation of firefighting vehicles and equipment used in the performance of crash/rescue and firefighting duties at airfields handling complex aircraft.
• Direct a crew in the containment and control of wildland fires.

Qualifications
In order to qualify, you must meet the education and/or experience requirements described below. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application.

Experience required: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

To qualify based on your experience, your resume must describe at least one year of experience which prepared you to do the work in this job. Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes performing duties such as controlling or extinguishing fires as a member of an organized military, industrial, volunteer, or governmental fire department; experience conducting rescue operations; driving and performing operator maintenance on emergency firefighting vehicles; performing emergency medical procedures (Emergency Medical Technician); performing inspections to detect, reduce, or eliminate potential fire hazards; controlling hazardous material incidents; and operation fire communications equipment. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the Federal service (GS-07).

You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency (knowledge, skills, abilities) in the following areas:

• Knowledge of Leading Firefighters
• Ability to Provide Firefighting Techniques
• Ability to Perform Work of an Emergency Medical Technician - Basic
• Ability to Perform Work of a Hazardous Material (HAZMAT) Responder

Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade (or equivalent).

Education
Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to qualify. For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone--No Substitution of Education for experience is permitted.