Developer API

Build on the same feed that powers Bluewatch.

A free, read-only JSON API of live UK firefighter recruitment. No auth, no rate limits, no account. Cached at the edge so it’s fast and stable. Build dashboards, mobile apps, Slack bots, custom widgets — whatever you like.

View /api/v1/meta →Try /opportunities →

Base URL

https://bluewatch.app/api/v1

Versioned. v1 is stable. Breaking changes ship under v2; v1 stays online.

Endpoints

GET/api/v1/opportunities

List live recruitment opportunities. Most-recent first. Paginated.

https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/opportunities?role=wholetime&region=north-west&limit=10

GET/api/v1/opportunities/{slug}

Single opportunity by slug. Slugs are stable once issued.

https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/opportunities/{opportunity-slug}

GET/api/v1/services

List services (fire and rescue services, airport ARFF units, defence fire teams, industrial fire teams, overseas employers).

https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/services?category=airport_arff

GET/api/v1/services/{slug}

Single service by slug. Use the slug from /jobs/fire/{slug} URLs.

https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/services/london-fire-brigade

GET/api/v1/meta

Counts and the latest opportunity timestamp. Cheap to poll for change detection.

https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/meta

Query parameters

/api/v1/opportunities

Param	Values
service_type	`fire (default), police, medic`Only fire is currently active.
service	`A service slug`e.g. london-fire-brigade — see /api/v1/services
role	`wholetime, on_call, transferee, control, specialist, officer, cadet, volunteer, operational_hq`
region	`north-east, north-west, yorkshire-and-humber, east-midlands, west-midlands, east-of-england, london, south-east, south-west, scotland, wales, northern-ireland`UK region — Wales rolls up the three Welsh services.
category	`local_authority_frs, airport_arff, defence_fire, industrial, private_contractor, overseas_transfer, other`Service category.
since	`ISO 8601 timestamp`Only return opportunities first seen at or after this time.
limit	`1–200`Default 50.
offset	`0+`For pagination. Default 0.

/api/v1/services

Param	Values
service_type	`fire (default)`
category	`local_authority_frs, airport_arff, defence_fire, industrial, private_contractor, overseas_transfer, other`
region	`north-east, north-west, yorkshire-and-humber, east-midlands, west-midlands, east-of-england, london, south-east, south-west, scotland, wales, northern-ireland`
limit	`1–200`Default 50.
offset	`0+`

Response shape

All endpoints return JSON. Lists are wrapped in { data, meta, links }; details in { data }.

Opportunity

{
  "service_type": "fire",
  "service_slug": "london-fire-brigade",
  "service_name": "London Fire Brigade",
  "service_short_name": "LFB",
  "service_region": "London",
  "service_category": "local_authority_frs",
  "station_slug": null,
  "station_name": null,
  "slug": "lfb-2026-wholetime-intake",
  "title": "Wholetime firefighter — 2026 intake",
  "summary": "Applications open for the LFB 2026 wholetime intake.",
  "role_type": "wholetime",
  "specialism": null,
  "is_cadet": false,
  "status": "live",
  "posted_at": null,
  "closes_at": "2026-06-30T23:59:59.000Z",
  "first_seen_at": "2026-04-21T09:30:00.000Z",
  "last_seen_at": "2026-05-07T08:00:00.000Z",
  "apply_url": "https://...",
  "source_url": "https://...",
  "url": "https://bluewatch.app/jobs/fire/london-fire-brigade/lfb-2026-wholetime-intake"
}

Service

{
  "service_type": "fire",
  "service_category": "local_authority_frs",
  "slug": "london-fire-brigade",
  "name": "London Fire Brigade",
  "short_name": "LFB",
  "country": "UK",
  "region": "London",
  "website_url": "https://www.london-fire.gov.uk",
  "recruitment_url": "https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/jobs/",
  "description": null,
  "url": "https://bluewatch.app/jobs/fire/london-fire-brigade"
}

Examples

curl

curl 'https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/opportunities?role=on_call&limit=5'

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch(
  'https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/opportunities?service_type=fire&region=south-west',
);
const { data, meta, links } = await res.json();

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://bluewatch.app/api/v1/opportunities",
    params={"role": "wholetime", "limit": 25},
)
r.raise_for_status()
for opp in r.json()["data"]:
    print(opp["service_name"], "-", opp["title"])

Caching, polling, errors

Cached at the edge.Lists for 5 minutes, details for 10. Set your polling cadence accordingly — hitting more often gets you cached responses, not fresher ones.
Change detection. Hit /api/v1/meta first and compare latest_opportunity_at before re-fetching big lists.
CORS allowed for any origin. Browser apps can fetch directly — no proxy needed.
Errors are JSON with { error: { code, message } } and a 4xx status.
Fair use.No formal limits, but if you’re hammering it harder than the cache TTL, that’s wasted effort — you’re hitting the same cached payload.

Attribution

The data is free to use. We’d love a link back to bluewatch.app in your UI — it helps applicants discover the source and keeps the project sustainable. The data is sourced live from each fire and rescue service’s own recruitment pages; treat each opportunity’s apply_url as the authoritative submission destination.

Building something? We’d love to hear about it.

If you’re building on the API and need a missing field, a different filter, or are running into a quirk, drop us a line. We can usually ship changes the same day.

hello@bluewatch.app