However, once promoted to Master Firefighter or above, assignments may include a hour work-week in a position outside the fire station. For Firefighters assigned to a fire station, the shift begins at am. Firefighters change into their uniform and relieve the off going shift. The incoming shift immediately conducts a thorough check of all personal protective gear, which includes a turnout jacket, pants, boots, air supply and personal alert device.
It's imperative that the Firefighters ensure their personal protective gear and equipment is in proper working order. Once the personal protective gear check is completed, the fire truck is checked and equipment is made ready for service. Daily truck maintenance includes washing the truck, cleaning equipment, and if necessary, changing batteries on radios and heart monitors. Firefighters are also responsible for cleaning their station. So, you see now that the longer shifts do have their perks.
Here are the downfalls for this type of shift. While this schedule can look daunting, it is quite popular with those who have tried it. My department switched to this schedule in the last few years, due to the very high costs of living in the area, and I much prefer this schedule to the others I have worked.
Unfortunately, these shifts are rapidly declining and are now being replaced with 24 or hour shifts, which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. However, it all comes down to your station and the needs of your community during the year. That means you should expect to work two-day shifts in a row, two-night shifts in a row, and then have four days off.
For the most part, your specific station will have set schedules for the day and night shifts. So, when you clock out for your day shift, the night shift is beginning to clock in. Keep in mind that there are no definitive guidelines for this type of schedule.
All stations do it differently, and, in fact, some stations take advantage of a schedule that involves 72 hours off rather than I, however, prefer the other longer shift schedules below. The schedules we talked about above seem to make up the majority of fire departments in the US.
However, there are other possible schedules, such as:. The California swing shift consists of hour shifts every other day for 5 total days 3 x hour shifts, with a day off in between each , followed by 4 days off. It allows for less redundancy and fewer days commuting to work.
Firefighters, on average, work about 56 hours per week. This is an average, because depending which schedule they work, some weeks could be 96 hours on shift and others could be 24 hours on shift. It will usually equal 56 hour average per week. There are some departments that have a different rotation or contract agreement that allows them to have a 42, 48 or even hour average work week, rather than the standard 56 hour.
Firefighters, on average, work hours 10 shifts per month. Some months may be slightly more or less. Again, this can vary, but most firefighters will work about hours per month.
This means firefighters will be on duty for 24 hours at a time, every other day, for 5 days. Then the schedule repeats. I personally work at a department that uses the California swing shift and I love it. Firefighters are on duty for 48 hours then off for 4 days. One hour period is often followed by a block of 48 hours or 72 hours off. Those on hour shifts get 4 days in a row.
This can be great for firefighters that want to spend more time with their families or work on side projects. In addition to the unpaid sleep breaks mentioned above, there is also an FLSA ruling where firefighters can take an unpaid, uninterrupted meal break. The frequency of these days can depend on the policy of the station or the type of schedule members are on. The strange name comes from the former mayor of Chicago, Edward J.
Kelly, who implemented the idea for firefighters in the city in These Kelly Days play an important role in firefighter shift schedules because not only do they offer an extra break for firefighters, they also help with overtime regulations.
Federal law on firefighter employment states that firefighters can work for 53 hours a week before they are entitled to overtime pay. Overtime payments are an issue in the fire service because some departments struggle to budget for them. This is significantly more than the LA police or medical staff. As a result, the LA department faced accusations of struggling to manage its budget or schedule staff effectively.
Some crew members can be on call in case they are needed for an incident. Being available for active duty and working a shift are not the same thing. If they do help out with other duties while on call, they can receive compensation through overtime pay. Now that you know this you may be asking how many hours do firefighter work on average with all this in mind? For firefighters, the vast majority of their job involves responding to car crashes and medical calls, similar to paramedics with private ambulance companies.
Last year, only one in every 50 incidents Las Vegas and Clark County firefighters responded to required them fighting an open flame. The departments responded to more than , calls last year. Dale Carrison is now the head of head of emergency and chief of staff at University Medical Center, but he got a late start in the medical field.
He was a physician-in-training in a hospital at age That was 22 years ago, when hour shifts - or longer - were routine for residents in emergency rooms.
One day, he cared for dozens of patients over a hour span. He was so busy, and had been up for so long, that when he stopped he couldn't drive home.
He slept at the hospital for a few hours, drove home, and later told his supervisors he never wanted to work like that again. Today, residents can still work for 24 hours, although in most places they are limited to 80 hours of work per week, with one guaranteed day off. And there is a push to limit those hours even more, since study after study shows the inherent risks in working for long hours.
A study published in the scientific journal Nature found that people who have been awake for 24 hours had the same cognitive performance as someone with a blood alcohol content of 0.
The legal limit for alcohol today is 0. A Harvard study found that one in 20 resident-physicians admitted a fatigue-related mistake that resulted in a patient's death. Another Harvard study that year found that interns working more than 20 consecutive hours were 61 percent more likely to pierce themselves with needles or scalpels, compared to interns who worked less than 12 consecutive hours.
Studies of truck drivers and airline pilots have found similar issues. But there have been few studies about how extended shifts might affect firefighters. Perhaps nobody has looked at the issue more in depth than the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs. Most departments there have been working normal shifts until the last decade, when collective bargaining units started pushing for hour rotations.
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