Municipal fire department · California · United States

Oakland Fire Department

About OFD

The Oakland Fire Department (OFD) protects the City of Oakland — approximately 440,000 residents across roughly 80 square miles on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in Alameda County, California. The city's distinctive combination of dense urban core, the Port of Oakland (one of the busiest container ports on the US West Coast), and the steep Oakland Hills wildland-urban interface shapes a uniquely demanding operational profile — the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, which destroyed approximately 3,000 homes and killed 25 people, remains a foundational event in California fire-service training. OFD fields about 530 uniformed members from 25 fire stations and provides structural fire suppression, advanced life support emergency medical first response (Falck provides primary 911 ambulance transport under contract; OFD engines arrive with paramedic-level care), technical rescue, hazardous materials response, marine firefighting (a dedicated fireboat covers the Port of Oakland and Bay waters), wildland firefighting in the East Bay Hills, and arson investigation. Firefighter recruitment is administered by the City of Oakland Human Resources Department under California civil service rules. The process includes a written examination, Candidate Physical Ability Test, oral interview, medical and psychological evaluation, and background investigation. Bluewatch refers candidates to the official portal.

Service at a glance

No live recruitment at OFDright now. Bluewatch scrapes the service's recruitment page directly — set up email alerts to be notified the moment a role opens.

Last updated 20 May 2026