Firefighter Bleep Test: the 8.8 Standard

Most UK fire and rescue services use the 20-metre bleep test as the aerobic part of firefighter selection, and the pass mark they publish is level 8, shuttle 8, written 8.8. Nine of the ten services checked for this page publish that figure. It represents an aerobic capacity of 42.3 ml/kg/min, which is the standard several services name directly on their recruitment pages.

Buckinghamshire was the one exception, publishing 8.6. Fire and rescue services are separate employers and each sets its own selection process, so the table below names every service checked, what it publishes and when it was read. Confirm the figure with the service you are applying to before you train to it.

Reaching level 8, shuttle 8 on the standard 20m schedule means 69 shuttles and 1,380 metres of running, taking about 8:06. The last of those shuttles is run at 12 km/h, up from 8.5 km/h at the start. Some services round the figures off and describe it as about 1,400 metres in roughly eight and a half minutes.

Buckinghamshire's 8.6 is two shuttles earlier: 67 shuttles, 1,340 metres, around 7:54. Both figures sit well above the UK police entry standard of 5.4, which is run on a shorter 15m course.

No service checked here publishes a different bleep test level for women, or a sliding scale by age. One number covers everyone. Cumbria's fitness policy for operational staff spells out the reasoning: health and fitness assessments are carried out "without regard to an applicant's sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status, skin colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins, religion or belief, age, pregnancy or maternity leave". The policy does commit the service to putting support in place where the data shows a group is being disadvantaged by the testing.

That makes the fire service different from the armed forces, where the RAF publishes in-service bleep test levels that drop with age and differ between men and women. If you have seen a lower firefighter figure quoted for women somewhere, it did not come from a fire and rescue service.

The number behind 8.8 is a VO2 max of 42.3 ml/kg/min. It came out of research at the University of Bath, sponsored by the Chief Fire Officers Association, which put 62 firefighters through simulated firefighting tasks in full kit and worked back to the aerobic capacity needed to complete them. Bath describes the resulting guidance as national best practice for fire and rescue services from 2016. Cumbria's policy attributes the 42.3 figure to the National Fire Chiefs Council.

Do not expect two VO2 max figures to agree. The bleep test only estimates it, and different equations give different answers. The VO2 max calculator on this site uses the Léger equation on the speed of the level reached, which returns 44.6 ml/kg/min for level 8 rather than 42.3. Neither figure is wrong. They are different ways of estimating the same thing, and the one that counts on selection day is whichever the service uses.

The bleep test is one item on a longer list. The practical tests vary between services, but the ones published most often are a ladder lift (raising a bar of roughly 25 to 30kg to shoulder or appliance height), a ladder climb at height on a 13.5m ladder, an equipment carry, an enclosed space or breathing apparatus crawl, an equipment assembly test against the clock, and a casualty evacuation using a weighted dummy. Lancashire lists seven practical exercises alongside the aerobic test, Nottinghamshire lists seven including a 25-metre swim, and Devon and Somerset require a swimming test for wholetime applicants only. Buckinghamshire runs a different set again: an equipment grip and carry, a ladder haul-aloft and a push-pull test.

This page only goes into detail on the aerobic figure, because that is the part you can rehearse in a park with a phone. For the practical tests, work from the service's own guidance.

Passing 8.8 gets you in. Holding it is part of the job. Cumbria's published policy puts every operational employee through an annual fitness and health assessment, using either the multi-stage fitness test or the Chester treadmill walk, with 8.8 as the pass and the same 42.3 behind it. Scores between 6.8 and 8.7 trigger a fitness plan and a drill ground test within 31 days. Below 6.8 means modified duties and a supervised four-week programme. The same standard applies from firefighter up to principal officer.

That is one service's policy rather than a national rule, and the detail differs elsewhere. It still shows how the test gets used once you are in, so do not treat 8.8 as a one-off hurdle.

Level 8 finishes at 12 km/h, so the aim is holding that pace with the turns included, not just on a flat run. Two or three interval sessions a week will move the number, and running the real thing once a week teaches you how much the braking and accelerating costs. Give yourself weeks rather than days if you are starting from a low base.

Run the full test free in the bleep test app, or take the free MP3s out with you, no signup. If you have never run it before, the setup and rules guide covers marking out the course and what counts as a failed shuttle. If your service offers the Chester treadmill test instead, the treadmill page covers how the two compare.