From what I’ve observed, you can get into fire fighting relatively quickly through freelance missions. You don’t have to do the company and worry about maintenance and all that. Although it’s not exactly how I would do it - I would have career mode be just a realistic fly from point A-A or A-B structure, and have a separate missions mode for those that just want to experience that part of it - it is a rather flexible setup where you can freelance pretty quickly or get into much greater detail with companies.