Generally speaking you will need your basic fire certifications before being hired onto a federal position. The certs required vary from position to position, and should be DOD/IFSAC certs. For example, a GS-6 may only need firefighter 1 and 2, hazmat ops, and maybe airport firefighter (only if the base has a flight mission). However a GS-7 would require all of the above plus Driver/Operator certs for various types of apparatus, and probably hazmat tech and/or EMT. The higher the grade the more certs you need. GS-8 you would need all of the above plus fire officer 1 and 2 and instructor 1 and inspector 1. If you have all those certs, start surfing USAjobs.com as often as you can and searching for firefighting jobs. They come up on there very often and are not difficult to find. If you want to do a series search, firefighters series number is 0081. Once you apply it will take quite a while for them to get back to you for an interview, and even longer to get you a job offer (it took nearly 11 1/2 months from the time I applied to the time I finally got an offer on my first federal job). Dont get discouraged, remember, its the government and things have to move through alot of red tape before they are approved. Hope this helps