As far as how many firefighters work part-time jobs, I would say less than half.  We don't have the luxury the police has.  They have numerous businesses that will pay them overtime wages for "part-time" work (using city owned vehicles and equipment, I might add).  When you see a medic unit at a special event, like a soccer tournament or Broad Street Bash, it is an ON DUTY medic unit.  The police you see are being paid overtime by the event.  That medic unit is also required to cover it's district....I just hope the delay in response doesn't affect you!

Our work schedule always comes under attack.  It amazes me.  Several years ago the  City paid $40,000 for a study of the fire department (the Matrix Study).  They determined that the City got the most "bang for it's buck" by the way we operate.  OK, if we run 19 firefighters per shift for 24 hours, our trucks get staffed.  If we went to 8 hour shifts, we would need 19x3 to cover 24 hours, or 19 firefighters for each 8 hour shift (57 firefighters per day!!!!!)  You also have to account for vacations, illnesses, and injuries, which would increase the number of firefighters needed per day.  If each firefighter worked 40 hours a week, we would be well over 120 firefighters minimum.  We are currently at around 76.  That is a lot of extra money the City would need for salaries, pensions, and health insurance!

Also, we work a 52-hour work week and get paid bi-weekly.  Regular employees would get 24 hours of overtime per check.  WE DON"T!!!  We get paid straight time.  To stay in accordance with FLSA, we accumulate what is called an EDO (earned day off), which is a paid day off. 

We are on pace to make about 10,700 calls for service this year.  Divide 10,700 by 365 and it equals about 29 calls per day.  Trust me, we stay busy.  We train, do building fire inspections, do public education, test fire hose, test fire hydrants, test our ladders. 

It is impossible to predict when we will be busy with calls or not.  We do get to sleep when we get the chance, I would never deny that.  But , wow, I would love to get to sleep 12-16 hours per day.  The simple fact is we don't.  There may be other less busy fire departments that get to do that.  If it happens here, it's extremely rare.

I have no problem with anyone questioning how we do our job.  It brings about healthy debate.  Like I have said, we have absolutely nothing to hide.  The bottom line is if they cut us 10-15%, everyone will feel the effects of it.  There will be less firefighters on duty to respond to calls.  Our calls for service have increased every year for decades.  People who call 911 will either get lucky and have MFD respond quickly, or wait for an out-of-town fire dept. to repond to their call for help.

Lastly, if I made anywhere near what a nurse makes on the hour, I would be open to any shift!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

 

You've answered my question about the need to accompany an ambulance on every run, and I guess I buy that to some extent, so perhaps you can explain this other item that nags at me; correct me if I'm wrong, but do our firefighters work 24 hour shifts?  And if so, what, exactly, is the reasoning behind that?  My gut tells me it harkens back to the old days of volunteer fire departments, when it made sense to have one set of volunteers cover for an extended period, say, 24 hours, and the firefighters could eat, sleep, or do whatever during that shift, but what exactly is the reasoning behind that today? 

 

As I alluded to in my earlier post, I know of no other continuous operation that schedules its crews in such a way.  My gut also tells me that this is the preferred schedule for firefighters because it allows them to have most of the week free to pursue part-time jobs or other interests.  Is that the case?  Can you tell me, from your own judgment, what portion of the firefighters have part time jobs?  And let me be clear, I have no issue with a person who feels the need to work two or more jobs to make ends meet--good for them, they're several notches in character above the many deadbeats that drag us down through section 8, welfare, etc.  But the issue I have is that we seem to cling to this antiquated system of 24-hour scheduling in order to 1) allow the fire fighters to work other jobs, as I've said, and 2) maximize the overtime opportunities for the firefighters.  Also, if you are at the station for two 24-hour shifts per week, how much time is spent sleeping in that 48-hour span?  Don't get me wrong, I would never expect any of you to be awake for 24 or 48 straight hours--that would be crazy and dangerous.  But I would guess that at least 12 to 16 hours are spent sleeping during that span, so the actual available time is a lot less than 48 hours per week.  Now I don't doubt there have been times when you've had to get up from sleep to answer a call, so it's not as though you're completely unavailable during this time, but my point remains--we're not getting truly 48 hours per week of productive work from the firefighters.  This brings me to the conclusion that we would get a far better value and would need fewer firefighters if they worked 12 hour shifts and were, of course, awake for the full 12 hours.  And iff the firefighter staff were reduced by 10-15% this would be a significant savings to the city without any material loss in service.

 

If you can give me a compelling reason, why, for example, you don't work 3 or 4 12-hour shifts per week like nurses do then I'll shut up and stop asking quesitons about this topic.  Thanks!

 

when were the police "guarding" hook field? if it was during an event, the organizer pays for the officer, not the city. also, i think sun coke or ak pays for the officers working there.

 

I have heard, although no idea if true, tax deparment and city hall has stack ranked residents from net worth on down, and same with companies. Obviously AK and Atrium at top, city even pays for a police officer to be out by Coke plant for hours daily, just like they did at Hook Field, guarding it like it was Ft. Knox.

 

Dunno why or why not, just know dunno what's up nor what's down with city hall. Sure hope your rumor about the return of Huesman is unfounded. I do know that they are spinning round and round. City taking a mighty fine interest in the Sr. Citizens Center. Wonder of that's to buy YES votes, tit for tat. Everytime I get a peek and offer to be inside the circle of love, I run fast from the dark side of town.  

Huge orderly crowd--outstanding scenery--good time

paid no attention to the band

had 2 very tasty chili dogs @ the square, where they were upbeat and valiantly attempting to turn lemons into lemonade

was approached by a nice gentleman who is running for Council

supposedly has already filed everything necessary

we shall see what he will bring to the table

 

was outside of one of my business locations yesterday, watching  a senior city employee of community development pull up business advertisement signs from the area as we head into the prime business holiday of the summer. Kinda wondered why they were out inhibiting business activity instead of working with the businesses and attracting more diverse entities into the community instead. And wondered why only certain businesses and areasare targeted while other less-savory businesses continue to operatecontinually in complete violation.

Good crowd, good time, & good weather for a change!

I assume you are a military veteran my your name, if so, thanks for your service to our country.  It's ironic that our military and its veterans suffer the same lack of respect  as police and firefighters by the same type of people.  If it was easy everybody would be doing it.....

Again, thank you.