The City of Orlando Fire Department was organized in 1885 and has a proud history that spans one hundred-fourteen years. During that time the department has used several tools to assess the individual firefighters ability to perform their jobs. These tools have been of various types and each has had its own degree of success. These assessments have included physical agility tests, graded training exercises, timed skill evolutions (such as pulling hose, raising ladders or crawling through a smoke maze) and even tests designed to measure the individual's flexibility and aerobic capacity. Each of these programs has had its benefits but none have endured. Likewise, various attempts have been made to bring about a stronger year-round commitment among the firefighters to exercise more, eat better and generally improve their readiness through better fitness.Today the only visible evidence of department support for a year round fitness program is the small budget line item for fitness equipment. There is no official training, scheduling or encouragement of the firefighters to become or remain physically fit. Participation in any fitness activity has dwindled and now the only efforts put forth are by those firefighters that are self-motivated. The problem is that although firefighting is a physically demanding task, the City of Orlando Fire Department no longer has any way of knowing if its firefighters are physically capable of fulfilling its mission. The purpose of this research project is to evaluate and recommend a physical performance standard for the City of Orlando Fire Department. Using the evaluative research method the following research questions were posed: 1.Are physical performance standards assessments a useful means of assuring a firefighter's physical capacity to perform his job? 2. What are the physical performance standards for firefighters at other fire departments? 3. What are the national standards, if any, that address physical performance standards for firefighters? The research methodology employed in preparing this project was the evaluative method with the desired outcome being to recommend a physical performance standard assessment for the City of Orlando Fire Department. The results of this research indicated that most physical performance standards assessments can be grouped into the two categories, tests of general physical fitness and task-oriented motor fitness tests. Both of these are useful in promoting and assuring fitness when used as a positive tool in an overall year-round fitness program.The recommendations resulting from this research include adding both general physical fitness testing and task-oriented motor fitness testing to the department's overall fitness policy. While it is recommended that this testing be mandatory it is further recommended that this testing be non-punitive. The results from this testing process should be used to help coach employees into better performance.