Part 2: I hit "submit" too early. Sorry about that! In non-rhotic accents, the "er" becomes a short, quick "uh" sound, like in "cut". In rhotic accents, the "er" is pronounced with a definite "r" sound. I just uploaded uploaded myself saying "fire" and "water" (ignore the fact that I thought the second word you asked about was "water", not "power). I said each word twice: the first two times I did it with my normal, non-rhotic Australian accent. The last two times I attempted a (probably terrible) American accent. Sorry for the echo: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0fASktiZudk You can also hear recordings of these words in various accents on Forvo: http://forvo.com/word/fire/#en http://forvo.com/word/power/#en http://forvo.com/word/water/#en It looks like I already uploaded my own pronunciation of "power" and "water" to Forvo a while ago under the name "Neptunium". Scroll down to the map and listen to how people from different places pronounce the "er" differently.

I recommend using real dictionaries instead of relying on native speakers to tell you how they think they pronounce a word. From the Macmillan Dictionary, the pronunciation of “power” US: /ˈpaʊər/ (As Merlyn said, some East coast accents are non-rhotic.) You may also hear /ˈpauər/ UK: /ˈpaʊə(r)/ (Jmat said, non-rhotic in Southern England and RP, but rhotic in other parts of the UK.) and “fire” US: /faɪr/ (Personally, I believe most US speakers pronounce it more like /ˈfaiər/ UK: /ˈfaɪə(r)/

The vowel sound in fire, when said slowly, the e kind of sounds like 'ah'. The same goes for power, the e turns into an 'ah' sound

The answer to this one depends on whether you're asking about a rhotic or non-rhotic accent e.g. most American accents are rhotic (except in the New England area), and most 'standard' British accents (i.e. RP, which is the textbook British accent, but this also applys to accents in south-eastern and central England).

3 ways depending on the accent, all are acceptable: 1) with a shwa : " fi-uh" ' pow-uh" (Britain, Austrailia, New Zealand, US-- Southern and certain cities - Think James Earl Jones... "You can't resist the pow-uh of the dark side.") 2) " faah" "paah" (Britain, Austrailia, New Zealand, US -- New England and Southern) 3) pronounced hard : " fi-er" "pow-er" (England --- West , Wales, Ireland, US --Midwest, West)