Justin Landosky is ready to rush into burning buildings.

"I'm actually kind of excited about it," the 25-year-old Carrick resident said yesterday, upon his graduation from training to serve as a City of Pittsburgh firefighter.

He's learned about responding to medical emergencies, cleaning up hazardous materials, and even contending with weapons of mass destruction. But before even responding to one emergency, he's helping to quench one fire that's been raging for years.

That's the city's firefighter overtime blaze.

From 2004 through August of this year, the Fire Bureau has dished out an average of $1 million a month in premium pay, mostly overtime, in an effort to keep its fire companies manned according to the union contract.

With yesterday's graduation, the bureau reached 626 firefighters, which is the number city officials say is optimal to keep stations manned at the lowest possible cost.

Premium pay costs, which also include longevity bonuses and extra pay for late shifts, are expected to dip from $12.9 million this year to $10 million next year, out of a $49 million fire budget.

"Any time you have the ability to add firefighters and reduce the overtime costs, that's beneficial," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, whose budget for next year calls for another class of 24 recruits.

Fire Chief Michael Huss said that after years of zero hiring, he has trained 128 new firefighters in exactly one year. That brings the city to the level it needs to handle several hundred fires and 29,000 medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, false alarms, inspections and other events a year.

The hiring "provides a tremendous relief to the firefighters who were subject to all of this overtime," said Joe King, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1.

As the recruitment push slows down, Chief Huss is working to enhance the capabilities of his entire workforce.

Tomorrow a cadre of firefighters will start 16 hours of training on surviving when trapped in a burning building. By the end of November, everyone from the chief to the newest recruit will have completed the course.

For just-graduated firefighter James Cunningham, 22, of the North Side, the prospect of more training on top of the "very difficult, very physical" 17 weeks in the academy isn't daunting. "It's challenging," he said, "but we all look for careers, and this is basically a guy's dream."