A recent livestream for The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle has confirmed that firefighters will be added to the base game in an upcoming free update on June 2nd.
Firefighters have been present in the franchise since the first Sims game, but were only made playable in the Ambitions expansion for The Sims 3. It was strange to see them absent from the base game when The Sims 4 launched, as it was the first time they weren’t included even as NPCs, but it seems EA is finally patching that up now.
During yesterday's official Eco Lifestyle stream, there were several instances of the newest mechanic to be introduced soon. Several items were tagged with “Fire Resistance” in addition to their "Eco Footprint," most likely showing how likely they were to catch on fire. When an actual fire happened on stream, the sims were given a special option to call the fire department to deal with the event.
Interestingly, this was not officially announced in the stream as a new mechanic, but simply shown through the gameplay. The devs did not comment on the feature other than to talk briefly about the option to turn floor flammability on and off in the game’s configuration.
The free base game patch including the firefighters will be available on June 2nd, and Eco Lifestyle will be available on the 5th.
Source: The Sims Twitch