Chief firefighter

A chief firefighter is a senior officer of a firefighting crew, the driver of fire car. In imperial Prussia, the title was known as brandmeister (from German Brand - "fire" and Meister - literally "master") and was the police officer, the chief of one of city fire-fighting crews. In modern German, there are also posts of oberbrandmeister (the senior brandmeister) and hauptbrandmeister (chief brandmeister). Conditions of their service in Germany, besides other, include German citizenship or citizenship of EU and the driver's class B license (earlier - class III).

In North America, this role can be that of:

• Fire Captain - who leads a fire fighters from a station or hall
• Fire Platoon Chief who is in charge of smaller team or platoon of firefighters at a fire scene
• Fire Lieutenant who supervises subordinate firefighters and/or operations at the scene of fires and disasters and may perform some firefighting work