[zx10guy]

I can only provide my long stale perspective on this whole firefighter debate. I used to volunteer at a heavy rescue squad over a decade ago. At my station, the majority of the staffing was by volunteers. We had the career guys cover the normal working hour shifts while the volunteers were out working their normal jobs.

I picked being on Monday night crew. My shift starts at 6PM Monday evening and ends 6AM Tuesday morning. I was also required to work every third weekend alternating Saturday and Sunday shifts. Saturday shifts were 12 noon on Saturday till 8AM Sunday Morning. Sunday shifts were 8AM Sunday morning till 6PM Sunday night. We had to stay at the station the entire time. The station has a kitchen, bunk rooms, and a common area with sofas and TV. Depending on the staffing level, you might alternate between another crew in responding for calls. If the staffing level was low, you run every call for the apparatus you're assigned to. The firefighters were all assigned to the heavy rescue truck. I don't think we've had enough staffing ever to run the second heavy rescue truck. Those trucks were alternated to even out use if they were both working. My station was also the primary ALS (advanced life support) unit for our first due coverage. There were times when I was on duty where we were rocking and rolling the entire time to include during the night. I remember I had about 3 calls in the dead of night and barely slept 2 hours not all at once. It's also difficult to sleep even if you don't get called out. All of us are in the same bunk room together. So if the squad truck gets called out, the speakers in the bunk room turn on blaring the dispatch and all the lights come on including our custom in house tones specific to the squad truck or the EMS/medical side.

I give all that background because many of you may not be aware of how life is at one of these stations. We had one of our members get approved for live in status. He lived in a back section of the bunk room which had enough privacy where he was able to be separate from the rest of us on duty shift. His obligation was to do his duty shift along with jumping in to help out when other shifts were short handed.

But in my area, there are stations fully manned by career firefighters and EMS personnel 24/7/365. I'd imagine life there is very similar to what I experienced at my station.

If you're on duty, you're on duty the entire time. There's no slacking or breaks. I remember when my county had a huge dispute between the career guys and the volunteers over some legislation and the attempt to combine the chiefs of both sides into a single one. It got so ugly that I remember when I was on my Monday night duty shift. A call comes in at 5:58 on Tuesday morning. The career guys were already at the station but wouldn't take the call. They forced us to take it. By the time I got done with the call, it was 7AM.

I haven't read the article. So don't know the specifics of how this firefighter was logging his ours. But I thought I would provide some perspective from someone who did live the life for a few years.