The number of new firefighter hires slated for the new year came to 2,367, up 440 from last year.
The National Fire Agency announced the plan to administer the 2026 firefighter recruitment exam on Jan. 5. Hiring will include 1,176 through open competitive recruitment with no restrictions on qualifications, education, or experience, and 1,191 through career competitive recruitment.
Career competitive recruitment is divided into 15 fields. ▲ Emergency medical services: 851 (71.5%) ▲ Rescue: 211 (17.7%) ▲ Fire-related majors: 72 (6.1%) ▲ Information and communications: 13 ▲ Psychological counseling: 9, and others.
By city and province, combining open and career recruitment, Gyeonggi has the most with 366. It is followed by ▲ Seoul 360 ▲ Busan and Daegu 138 each ▲ Incheon 113 ▲ Gangwon 127 ▲ North Chungcheong 97 ▲ South Chungcheong 80 ▲ Daejeon 62 ▲ Gwangju Metropolitan City 44 ▲ Ulsan 31 ▲ Sejong 20.
Applications can be submitted from Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. to Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. In particular, starting this year, submissions will be accepted through the integrated central government National Civil Service Recruitment System, not the National Fire Agency's "119 Exam," so test takers should take note, the National Fire Agency said.
The written test will be held simultaneously at test sites nationwide by city and province on Mar. 7. After the physical fitness test, document screening, and interviews, the final successful candidates are scheduled to be announced on May 29.
There are changes starting this year due to legal revisions. First, the minimum age for applicants has been standardized to 18. The physical examination will now be submitted only when registering as a hiring candidate after final acceptance, and the number of drug test items in the physical examination has been strengthened from two to six (methamphetamine, marijuana, ketamine, ecstasy, cocaine, opium).