The rise and rise of clean, white collar (fire-fighting) work

Australian newspapers, like those in other first-world countries, valorise fire-fighters through images more typically associated with heroic blue-collar “battlers”: sweat, ash, uniforms and firestorms, punctuated with tales of heroic deeds and personal sacrifice. Yet increasingly, much of the work of fire-fighters is associated with the grunt of “clean work” – report writing, community engagement, prevention and recovery activities, and so on. This paper considers the changing nature of career fire-fighters' work in one fire-fighting organisation in Australia, and the rising importance of “clean” white-collar work to emergency management.