I'm not OP but I went through fire academy in the US with someone doing a similar career change as you're thinking about. He was in his late 30s or early 40s, a

I'm not OP but I went through fire academy in the US with someone doing a similar career change as you're thinking about. He was in his late 30s or early 40s, and as I remember, academy was too physically demanding for him and he dropped out. Fire service, and in particular urban and wildlife firefighting, can be quite physically challenging. More suburban or rural areas are less demanding, but are mostly staffed by volunteers. Four things to keep in mind: first, in most US jurisdictions these days, firefighting is coupled with EMS. So if you're squeamish around trauma, it's probably not going to be a good fit. Second, it's pretty physically demanding. Even if the academic side comes naturally to you, it's a very physical job. Third, it can literally kill you. If you don't handle stress well, it's not going to be a good fit. Fourth, it's a team effort. Even on extremely understaffed departments, you're always dependent upon other people, and they are always dependent on you -- sometimes, in both cases, for survival. Out of my academy class, roughly 1/3 the class struggled with the academic portion, roughly 1/3 struggled with the physical portion, and the last 1/3 had to work at it, but didn't really struggle. For reference, these are some of the kinds of things we needed to do: + Simulated rescue of 165-pound dummy + Move hose lines, both charged (with water) and uncharged (no water) + Climb ladders until you suck the bottle dry + Crawl through a wire entanglement tunnel in full gear (I think we also went through one round with "blindfold" inserts in our SCBA masks) + Drills with time limits on almost everything (donning gear, doffing gear, bottle changes, on-air, off-air...) And so on. My advice would be, get in shape first, and manage your expectations. Many departments will be pretty hesitant hiring someone who's 20 years more senior than all of the rest of the recruits. Volunteer would probably be a better fit, but less of a career change and more of a side project.