When the crew is in the firehouse, they’re all on duty.
ETA: depending on the department, it can be a 24-48 hour shift.
Shopping for the station, on station time? Use station transportation. Seriously. I see an engine at the local Safeway maybe one in 20 times I go.
They are often at the local COOP - they park the engine near the back of the lot where there is space.
It is so that if they get a call, they can respond quickly. I was a volunteer firefighter and we would go to lunch in the ambulance. We would pay first so if there was a call, we could leave.
My husband is a FF in Calgary. They keep their radios on and often the driver stays in case of a call. Many halls have two trucks (i.e. an engine and an aerial) and one crew gets sent while the other stays at the hall.
Often, a guy will pick up the food on his time off and bring it to the hall, but that’s not always an option for all halls, so they go during the day.
As said, they don’t send one guy to the store during shift because he’s part of a crew and they need to be together in case they get a call.
Going to get groceries also depends on how busy the hall is and the captain.
By the way, they all pay for their own food (everyone contributes to a kitty each shift).
There isn’t. Each guy has a role. In my husband’s hall, it’s the driver, senior man, captain, and hydrant (for instance). You send the driver to get groceries, you have no driver. Senior man, you have no guy to lead the hose in to the fire. Hydrant, no one to hook things up at the fire and take second on the hose. And of course you wouldn’t send the captain. Would you want a 3/4 crew showing up at your house fire?
This thread lists a half-dozen good reasons why this is done. It shouldn’t bother you. All but a trivial amount of fuel waste is for your benefit as a taxpayer and a potential “customer.”
Also, it’s not uncommon to make the stop while the truck is out anyway; maybe on the way back from a call, maybe while on the way to a training.
Sicks Ate, are you for fucking real? How could anyone object to a fire truck parking in a fire lane?
If a fire suddenly develops at the store, it’s not like they’re going to send out a different truck/crew to take care of it. Putting the fire truck there means it is in the best position to take care of it. And, if a fire suddenly develops elsewhere, then the truck is in the best position to get the firefighters out there as soon as fucking possible.
We’re talking about a 'round-the-clock emergency services job, here. This is not evidence of firefighters being lazy on the job. If *you *worked 48-hour rotating shifts, *you *might appreciate being able to shop for groceries when you were hungry. And as stated above, where one man goes, they all have to go. Your attitude is really thick-headed.
Yeah, as soon as all of you are done putting words in my mouth and mis-stating my position I’ll be back. Thx.
YW.
I’ve seen this done on occasion as well. Sometimes the firefighters are there to do inspections and other times they are actually shopping. As long as they’re not too far from their station they can respond from where they are.
Yeah, but what if the firetruck catches on fire? 
There are fire fighters at my grocery all the time - coming from their firehouse a whole block and a half away. They never block anything I’ve noticed.
I have to defend Sicks Ate here as it was I who quoted a thread from some ten years back concerning this.
I was once told they took the truck to do inspections around town to give the drivers practice negotiating the streets in the truck.
Doesn’t that mean that you’re paying an extra fireman’s salary while he goes to shop for groceries rather than burning an extra $5 in gas?
Sounds like a sensible thing to do. And sometimes they should do it before buying a new engine. Just the other day I read about a voluntary fire brigade in a small town somewhere, France I think, who just got their new one delivered only to find that it was too wide for some of the most narrow streets in town.
I’m rather fond of the guys at my local store.
When my kid was around 5yo (about ten years ago) one was parked out front of the store. I walked my son over there so he could get a close look at it.
I had no intension of bothering those guys but they insisted he sit up in the cab and check it out. He even got to blow the horn!
Way cool of those guys.
When I worked in the 911 call center in DC, my office was next to the Deputy Fire Chief’s office, and we were on friendly terms. At a meeting he once mentioned how ungodly expensive it is to have a fire engine called out of a firehouse. I don’t remember the figure, but I do remember that it was higher than I would have ever guessed. I would think for this reason alone we wouldn’t want to be taking the equipment out for casual shopping trips.
Also, doesn’t more mileage mean more frequent servicing?
It’s really not like this is a serious problem that has to be solved.
Are fire trucks expensive? Yup. Do firefighters earn a fair salary? Yup. If the truck & crew sit at the station instead of heading out the door, do you save all that money? Nope. Still have to own the truck, still have to pay the firefighters.
The cost of an occasional trip to the store pales in comparison to the cost of medical calls by people who have a boo-boo, no doctor and don’t want to pay a cab to the hospital.
On my DC Fire scanner I listen to numerous ems medical runs where people get a medic and and engine or truck to respond because someone feels ill, or worse, the number of “E T O H on board” calls, which is the lingo the local FDs use to say drunk. Insane number of drunk person calls, dozens each night, and medics don’t just drop a patient at the hospital and run, they have to wait for an ER bed to open up, which during this flu epidemic can take hours.
Also what hasn’t been discussed is the great likelihood that these trucks did not leave the station on a munchie run, rather they are returning from some call and drop in the store on the way back. Net cost to taxpayer? Negligible.
There are much bigger wastes of money in the fire / ems service than a truck at the store. Cut down on the wasted use of service calls then you are looking at real savings, but that requires real thought and action by government, which is to be polite, rare.