The Seattle Fire Department has opened applications for firefighter and EMT recruits with a starting salary of $98,124, positioning the department among the highest-paying fire services nationally.
The hiring push responds to years of burnout, increasing emergency calls, and workforce strain. Fire Chief Harold Scoggins has addressed the pressure on crews, who responded to more than 112,000 incidents in 2024 including medical emergencies, fires, overdose calls, and encampment blazes.
“We’re down 125 people from a full staff,” Scoggins told city councilmembers earlier this year. “We don’t want to keep going to the same encampments 12,000 or 14,000 times a year or respond to 5,000 overdoses. It wears on you as an individual.”
Department leadership views increased pay and benefits as essential to addressing staffing challenges. New recruits receive nearly six-figure salaries from the start, along with full medical coverage and lifetime pensions. The national average salary for firefighters is approximately $59,000 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, making Seattle’s offer exceptional for entry-level positions.
Other major departments pay substantially less. New York City’s FDNY starts around $54,000, Los Angeles offers roughly $78,000, and San Francisco begins at about $98,400, placing Seattle at the top of the pay scale.
The competitive salary reflects Seattle’s cost of living and the city’s strategy to attract and retain qualified emergency responders amid nationwide firefighter shortages. The high call volume and diverse emergency response requirements demand well-staffed, experienced crews.
The recruitment drive aims to fill the 125-position gap and reduce overtime burden on current staff, who face burnout from repeated calls to homeless encampments and drug overdose incidents that have increased significantly in recent years.
Seattle’s investment in firefighter compensation represents a broader municipal effort to maintain public safety services while competing with other high-cost West Coast cities for qualified personnel.
