The local newspaper today had a story about a new, more gentle alarm system installed in firehouses to wake up the sleeping firemen when a call comes in. It reminded me that I have never understood why firemen sleep during the night shift. Why can’t they stay awake doing productive things around the fire station the way the firemen on the day shift do?
My understanding is that most firemen’s schedules have traditionally been of the 2- or 3-days on, and then the same amount of time off variety, rather than, say, 8-hour shifts. So, the reason they sleep during the night shift is that they were awake during the day shift. My WAG for why the schedules are done that way is that there’s less chance of having to deal with a shift change in the middle of a fire.
ETA: It could also be because it’s not cost effective to have a full regular night shift in most places, since relatively few fires are going to start at night.
Because some fire stations don’t have three eight hour shifts - they have 24 hour shifts, or in some places a few days on then a few days off.
ETA - Here’s a link to a typical day in the life of one of my village’s firemen. They do 24 on, 48 off.
The first two responses have it. There really is no such thing as a ‘night shift’ with most fire stations. You work for 2-3 days at a time (as in, 2-3 full 24 hour days) and then have a couple days off.
Plus, there’s really not that much to do at a Fire Station. You can clean it, but it largely amounts to a small garage. There’s equipment, but it’s not mostly that cimplicate. Most places probably have 1-2 Fire Engines and the individual gear. So they keep it clean and keep things running, which isn’t going to be that hard. And they do go through training sessions.
But other than that, well… the entire point of a fire station is that if you need it, it’s there. If the Fire Station is constantly busy, it’s a very, very bad thing. 
The first several responses got most of the answers straightened out. As everyone has alluded to, most fire departments work a 24 hour schedule, in either a three or four shift (or group, platoon, or squad, depending on local parlance) rotation. I work 24 hours, twice every 8 days (24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 5 days off). It averages out to 42 hours a week. Departments with three shifts usually do 24 on, 48 off. The 4-shift departments seem to be northeastern states only, everyone else seems to do 3 shifts.
A number of northeastern departments also do a 10/10/14/14 shift - two 10 hour days, two 14 hour nights, and four days off. The numbers still work out to be the same as working two 24’s. A lot of these departments are moving towards working 24’s.
Having firefighters work 8 hour shifts is not a practical idea. How do you train during the day or night when you’re on a day-only or night-only shift?
If assigned to an 8 hour rotation, how do you keep a crew of firefighters together for each shift, while still allowing for time off? We oftern are compared with police officers, who tend to work 8 hour shifts. They’ll usually work 4 on/2 off. But police officers work alone (or at most with a single partner). Firefighters work in a constant crew - I know what each person on my shift is capable of, good at, and not so good at. As a company officer, I don’t have to think to myself “well, I’ve got Ned, Fred, and Ted working today, Fred’s good at EMS runs, Ned’s a good pipe man, but he can’t start an IV worth a darn, Ted can drive well, but hurt his back, or was it Fred that hurt his back?” every time I show up to work. I have the same crew, all the time (except for sick or vacation leave).
Keep in mind, just because we are “allowed” to sleep, doesn’t mean that we are, in fact, sleeping. Emergencies happen 24 hours a day, sure there are times that are slower than others, but you will be awakened at all hours, and expected to be fully awake, have perfect judgement, and not make a single mistake. Right now. No going to take a leak when you got up. No splashing some water on your face. No cup of coffee. Get up. Now. NOW**! Done with your call an hour later? Try to wind down and go back to sleep. It isn’t going to happen. It’s 3am and you’re back from your second or third run of the night? Grab a cup of coffee and watch Leno for the second time tonight, you’re up for the rest of the shift.
Then when you get home at 7:30 to kiss the wife while she’s on her way out the door to go to work, she can tell you “well, you got to sleep all night.” Thanks, dear.
** A lot of research into firefighter fatalities has shown that by startling firefighters awake as we’ve done for a hundred years, we set ourselves up for cardiac problems. A “ramping” alert tone and softer lighting helps to cut down on the initial stress of a call. Wish we had ramping tones and soft lights where I work…
Is that true? Where did you hear it?
I understood a lot of fires are caused by smokers falling asleep, and their cigarette starting the couch/chair/bed on fire. I would think that is more likely to happen at night.
My neice once asked my husband, “What do you do when Boeing isn’t on fire?”
Firefighters have other duties when they aren’t fighting fire. They do hydrant/valve checks, equipment checks and maintainance, and training. They clean and cook. They stay busy during the day, then rest at night.
As my husband tells people, firefighters are paid, not for what they do, but for what they may be expected to do.
My brother is a firefighter. When he is on shifts his routine is 2 days 6am to 6pm, then 2 nights 6pm to 6am then 4 days off. On night shifts they just have dinner, sit around and watch TV, play cards, pool etc and then go to bed. If they get no calls they just go home and have the day off. Where he works they hardly ever get night calls.
Because the standard roster means that the firies are only unavailable during the day 2 out of every 8 days, most of them are tradesmen and carry on with their own business.
The roster also allows them to take off the 4 working days between 2 lots of days off and have a 12 day break. It seems like a pretty good life - well my brother thinks so.
There are a few different schedules that are common in the SF Bay Area (a lot of former lifeguard colleagues have gone on to FDs). The Kelly, aka 3/4, seems to be the old-school way: on, off, on, off, on, off, off, off, off. The 2/4 is gaining popularity as more and more fireman are commuting in long distances in huge ego trucks: 48 hours on, 96 hours off. Some smaller departments stick with the less confusing 1/2.
Firefighters are like pain killers (aspirin, etc.). They spend most of their time unseen and in obscurity but when you need them, they are invaluable.
It’s like when I am Treasurer of a horse show, and am paying our Show Veterinarian – I can say “here’s your paycheck – I hope you did absolutely nothing to earn it” and really mean that. We are very pleased if during the show no horse got sick or injured at all.
You get five days off? I want that job.
Because if there aren’t any fires at night, you’re getting paid to sleep, really.
I am not a firefighter but I will try to answer this one. according to this document (PDF), there were 484,954 incidents in which the New York City Fire Department were dispatched to in 2006. Of those, 27,817 ( 5.7%) were structural and 20,702 (4.3%) were nonstructural fires. So 90% of FDNY’s calls weren’t even fire related. While I know New York is a unique city, I wouldn’t be surprised if these numbers hold true in other locations as well.
I have a friend who is a firefighter and he says that most of his calls are car accidents, slips and falls, people with chest pains, and other medical related calls.
I don’t know if it’s so great. My brother once worked a job where he had 4 12-hour days, then 3 days off. He said that after a 12-hour day, all you had time (and energy) to do was come home, eat a meal, take a shower, and go to bed. And when you woke up, you had to leave for work. No time to do any errands, wash clothes, etc.
And on the days off, you were so tired you slept for half of your first day off, spent the next one catching up on errands, washing, housework, etc., and then had only 1 real day off.
In Spain to be a fireman you must be trained in a construction trade.
Medical personnel and firemen are the only ones who can work 24h shifts (I’m still talking about Spain); they can go to 49h in an emergency but this should be avoided if possible. The usual schedule runs with 24h shifts.
Like firemen, medical personnel have rooms in the hospital where they can sleep when not needed. It’s generally assumed that waking two people up when someone comes in bleeding (or the squad if there’s a call to the firehouse) is better than having 5-10 people yawning their heads off all night, then driving home with no sleep. If there’s work to be done, they stay awake, but if there’s no work, why should they be sleep-deprived?
I’ve done 12h shifts, 6-6; after a few days in the night shift even the most nocturnal of my shiftmates was half-asleep for all of it and doing everything eeeeeextra careful. By day 4 I could have killed for a cot; there were times when I only had work for about half an hour, out of those twelve.
You might know the answer to this. My (Australian) wife sometimes remarks on the “fact” that Australian firefighters are “volunteers,” presumably meaning that they get paid little if anything to do what they do (I guess they’re supposed to have a real job to pay the bills.) My experience is with NZ firefighters where I understood it to be a profession unless you were working in a country town where the requirement for firefighters was minimal. What is the working arrangement for an Australian fireman? Is it a fulltime job? Is my wife confused? Am I confused?
There are both professionals and volunteers in Australia. In Victoria, for example, city fire services are supplied by the 500-strong professional MFB and country services by the CFA. The latter has 500 paid firies and 58 000 volunteers.
What is in it for a volunteer? Are they volunteers because they do it for little pay or because they do it for good pay at their convenience?
The volunteers receive no pay. They are usually part of the http://www.bushfire.nsw.gov.au/Rural Fire Service. Notoriously amongst career firemen these guys are considered to be pyromaniacs. Unfortunately history proves this slander to be true in many cases.