How to play Firefighter
Firefighter is a retro DOS-style arcade game. You fly a water bomber back and forth over a burning forest and drop water to put out the flames.
Each pass takes you a little lower, so put out the fire before you fly into it.
Rules
- The plane flies across the screen and drops one row lower each time it wraps around.
- Each water drop puts out 3 to 5 flames in the column below. You can have two drops in the air at once.
- Touching the flames means a crash and the game is over.
- Put out every flame and the plane lands by itself, clearing the level. Later fires are taller and the plane flies faster.
- Each flame scores 10 × level and a safe landing adds 250 × level.
Controls
- Space / ↓ / S
- Drop water
- Click / tap
- Drop water
- P / Esc
- Pause
Tips
- Target the tallest columns first — they are the ones you will hit as you fly lower.
- Water falls straight down into the column under the middle of the plane, so drop when the plane is centred over the flames.
- Don’t waste drops on short columns early on. They can wait until you are lower.
About Firefighter
Firefighter is an original game made for this site in the style of the 1980s DOS one-screen arcade games: a plane that flies back and forth, a job that gets harder every pass, and a crash if you dawdle. The “bomber that drops a row lower each lap” idea goes back to the city-bombing games of the late 1970s and early 80s home computers, where the target was a skyline. Here it is a forest fire and you are dropping water, not bombs.
It works as a break game for the same reason the originals did: one button, rounds of a few minutes, and a score that climbs with every level you survive.
Questions
Is Firefighter based on a real DOS game?
Not one in particular. It is an original game inspired by the one-screen bomber games of the early home-computer era, where a plane drops lower each lap. Free in your browser, nothing to install.
How do I play Firefighter on a phone?
Tap anywhere on the game to drop water. On a desktop press Space, the down arrow or S, or click.
How is the score calculated?
Each flame you put out scores 10 × the level, and landing safely after clearing a level adds 250 × the level. Later levels have taller fires and a faster plane.
How many drops can I have in the air?
Two. Each drop puts out 3 to 5 flames in the column directly below the plane, so save them for the tallest columns.