One Dublin firefighter has said it is a job he always wanted to do.
Station Officer with Tallaght Fire Station Darren O'Connor was speaking to the 'Ask Me Anything' series on Lunchtime Live, which sees people come into studio and answer your questions every Friday.
Darren joined the service back in June 2005.
"A neighbour of ours on the road was a firefighter; I was brought down to the fire station when I was eight or nine for a walkaround and I was kind of hooked from then," he said.
"I was a very practical kid growing up; school wouldn't be at the forefront of my idea.
"I was more into puling things apart, fixing things, tools - and the fire brigade kind of had all that stuff."
Darren (right) in the strangest situation he's found himself in - with a snake. Image via @DubFireBrigade on XOne listener asked what is the strangest situation he found himself in. Darren said it was actually someone who called into the station.
"A guy and his son called into the station late one evening with a snake in a cage," he said.
"The snake was stuck in a piece of wood - in fairness he said, 'It's the only place I thought of'.
"He said he's not dangerous, so we brought him into the station and put out on a shelf.
"With all the gear that we'd have on a fire engine - hydraulic cutting equipment and all that - it was like two hacksaw blades out of the toolbox and a couple of screwdrivers [that we used].
"We spent about an hour cutting the piece of wood away and prized it open."
Darren said that photo was one of the first pictures that launched the Dublin Fire Brigade's Twitter account.
"That picture was one of the first pictures that launched our Twitter page, and it became known in the mainstream media as Snakes and Ladders."
Women firefighters
One listener asked do many women work in the fire brigade?
"In Dublin Fire Brigade at the moment, I think last count, we had 57 female firefighters," Darren said.
"There's another five coming in now in the next few months.
"They range from all officer ranks.
"I think we've seven sub officers, we've an assistant chief, third officer in the senior management team, district officer, station officer."
Lots of sitting around?
Another listener wonder if there's a lot of sitting around playing cards?
"During the day you start at 9am and we work till 6pm and everything is rostered out during the day," Darren said.
"The station it's a big house, we live in the house - so the house has to be cleaned - toilets, shower areas, floors, the bins have to be done
"Then we eat in the station as well, so we have to cook for ourselves and eat there and clean that.
"Then there's on-station training, there's drills, familiarisation with new equipment.
"Pre-fire plans, new apartment block appears in the area we have to drive up, look at the access, check hydrants, that kind of thing.
"Start at 6pm in the evening then, the nightshift coming in, the same thing happens again and then there's downtime.
"In some of the busier stations there's very little downtime."
Becoming a firefighter
Another listener wanted to know how do you become a firefighter?
"To become a fulltime firefighter you apply - it's publicjobs.ie - it's obviously a pubic sector job," Darren explained.
"The local authority runs the fire service, so Cork City Council will look for firefighters in Cork, Dublin City Council will look for firefighters and paramedics in Dublin.
"You do an online aptitude test, if you get the mark in the aptitude test you're invited to do the aptitude test supervised.
"Then you're invited for interview; if you're successful in the interview and placed on a panel it's medical, physical tests, a Candidate Physical Assessment Test.
"Pass all them, you're into training then," he added.
