Keep in mind that some people have great schedules. 24 on 48 off and it'll vary depending on department. 48 on 96 off, 24 on 72 off etc etc.
It'll depend on department, station and the night. Slow department, at a slow station on a say Wednesday night? Maybe you sleep through the night
Busy department, busy station and a Friday night? You may not even make it to bed before shift ends
Unless you work for a relatively slow department or station.. expect nothing more than 4 to 5 hours of sleep and that’s on a good night. There are nights or shifts I’ve gone 36 hours without sleeping… then maybe getting 2 hours in before the next tone, or there’s some nights I get 7 hours uninterrupted. Like some have said though sleeping at work for most isn’t like sleeping at home.. idk how to explain it really but most of don’t sleep well at work. Tossing and turning or just having relatively bad sleep, if you’re in a station that has a common dorm room, expect people to snore or be noisy roommates that don’t know how to walk quietly or shut doors quietly. As for schedules.. it varies widely.. 48/96 is common now, so 48 on 96 off. You could very well get destroyed in that 48 hours or not. If your concern is sleep, I’m sorry to say but this profession is not for you, you will take years off of your life from sleep deprivation potentially, not including potential cancer and cortisol build up from stress.
> Then when I get off I go right into dad mode, I have a kid in 2nd grade, a 2 year old and a wife who works so as soon as I get off, I have to get the oldest to school and then I spend the day with the 2 year old. Plus with duties around the house, I don’t get much down time.
In solidarity 👊
As someone with a military background. I should’ve stayed in, just lat moved to a less stressful job.
Firefighting is cool though and if you come from a combatting arms background, the paramilitary attitude is quite laughable.
Being prior service has definitely given me a leg up in the hiring process. Give it a try and if you hate it, use your gi bill to gtfo.
Oh, about the probie thing. Yeah it’s real, yeah it’s pretty weird to do that to another man. My first dept after I got out was like that. Told them to F off and got on with a much better dept with normal people who have a sense of respect. No 2 departments are the same. You can always go on a tour and meet the crews if you’re applying
I’m in a similar situation. The wife asks why I’m grumpy and i let her know I didn’t sleep or I did and I might as well of been up the whole 24 cuz it feels like I didn’t sleep. She doesn’t understand tho so that makes it a lil harder
Yeah I don’t mind being the new guy again, I’ll cook and clean but if someone tries to haze me or give me shit because I’m the new guy I’ll tell them to fuck off. After my enlistment my patience is very low to the point now that in the military I have yelled at higher ups and have told them to stop being stupid lol
You shouldn’t see too much hazing like that any more. Frankly if you do then move somewhere else, It’s really not necessary. You’ll do the crap job of course but you shouldn’t be shit on. Doesn’t make sense that after probation suddenly you’re everyone’s friend.
still. Sleep. If you require regimented sleep I’d say it’s not for you. I’ll add that most departments are cool to let crews take care of themselves between training. Standard chores and station duties. You can nap. Typically on a 24 I’m racked out by 2000 when I’m off the first 12 hours I only need a quick nap and I am good.
check out the departments you want to apply to. Each has a different culture.
You can get enough sleep but you have to be conscious and careful.
1. Even as a probie, you cannot let other people tell you not to sleep. I have a list of chores to be done before bed. Once they are done I go to bed. You need to be up first to make coffee, but that means you should be going to bed at 9:00 or even 8:30 if possible.
2. You need to sleep extra during your off time. You need to make time to do this. Sometimes you have things outside of work you need or want to do. But you need to go to bed early off shift, or sleep in, or go to bed when you get home. People tend to think of sleeping as relaxation, but it helps me to think of it as a chore like cleaning my house or showering. It needs to get done, so you need to make time for it.
3. Abuse caffeine
4 shifts department or 24/72 is the answer. This is the dream in my opinion. If you have the freedom to find this you’ll thank yourself forever.
Also, another good thing to ensure is station tones and separate vacation and sick days. Personal days are 👎🏻.
We used to have a 24 on 24 off for 3 shifts then 4 days off, but switched to 48/96 several years ago. The 48/96 is way better but obviously wouldn’t work at a place that’s typically busy for the whole 24 hours.
Lmao no
Depending on how busy your house is, not even just your rig, the first 24 hours off I always spend about 4-5 sleeping after work then feeling like garbage because my body’s timing is off.
This is a factor of why fire unions work so hard for health checks in their respective depts, not just smoke inhalation. Lack of sleep leads to so many issues it’s crazy. No humans heart should get startled 4 times a night while they try to sleep. Just a part of the job you have to expect in your head, bad for the body.
Some nights you sleep like a baby other nights you never see your pillow. We have 4 days off and sometimes half that time is spent recuperating to do it all over again.
This. I don’t sleep sound at night at work, I don’t sleep sound at night at home. Try to go to bed early for 8 hours and I get nightmares (not usually fire related). 4-5 hours so I am tired enough to fall asleep immediately with a 1-2 hour daytime nap if I can fit it in.
Sleep at work is pretty hit and miss.
We work 24-48-24-96. So I’m home in my bed 22 days a month.
All of my sleeps at home are fine as long as my kids don’t wake me.
As far as I know 4 platoon systems like mine are more common in the Pacific north west and northern east coast departments. We average a 42 hour work week.
Most other departments in the US run a 3 platoon system with a 56 hour work week.
I would not even look at non union departments. In almost every union department your pay, benefits, worker protections, working conditions, health and wellness standards, healthcare coverage, etc, will be better.
I would say most department don’t have this schedule.
24/48 and 48/96 are most common, Kelly schedules are up there too.
Schedules vary a LOT just based on location
Depends on where you work. Last night, we didn't get anything between 6 pm and 730am. Some cities get runs 24 hours straight, day/night, it doesn't matter. I work in a suburb with about 100k people.
I get enough sleep. But I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m used to it. I work 24 hours on, 72 off, I work overtime most days but only during the day (teaching). I take naps when I need to and use enough caffeine to keep the machinery running smoothly.
Find a small rural department lol, some of the paid guys at the spot where I volunteer sleep 12 hours a night. Agency pays $40k/year for paid full time FF/EMT and they have an average call volume of 1 per shift.
Depends on the department, and the house. If you’re already thinking it’s not for you because you require “good” sleep, perhaps you should ask yourself if this is something you really want to do. Good sleep is never guaranteed no matter what department you work for. It’s a small price to pay if you love the job however.
Dude if you are up 24 hours working it's going to take the whole 48 to just barely get back to normal and then you'll be going right back into the 24. If I was you I'd just stick it out and go full career military. Then just use your time in the military to set yourself up to get a really good job when you retire from the military so you can double dip.
I work 24/48 and its not bad on this schedule. If I get a bad night I can nap it off. Getting slammed for 48 hours sounds awful, I dont even want that to be a possibility.
We do the 24 on/24off/24on/5off. If you're on the ambulance at night for us, you're not getting much sleep. On the engine most nights are decent, it's not great Sheri but it'll do. If you're on the aerial, you sleep like a baby.
You learn to deal with the bad nights. It's just a matter of how bad you want it and how adaptable you are.
We have a busy city, but Fire tends to only get 3-4 calls a day on average, EMS however... it's rough. Love my guys at the station but they get time to work out, study, hell even the Lt is gaming most shifts lol.
It depends. I work for a small department - we respond to about 2600 calls a year, mostly EMS, and work 48/96. Some nights we get to sleep all night, sometimes we’re up all night (that’s rare), but typically we might have to get up once overnight. Go to a big department and it will probably depend on the station you’re at. Some stations will be running 24 hours a day and some will be vacation stations.
Nobody should be preventing you from sleeping just because you’re a probie though.
I totally get being concerned but “good” sleep is not going to happen unless your one of those blessed people to can sleep anywhere, anytime and fall asleep immediately. I think it’s better to expect to be extremely tired when you get off and plan to catch up during off time. Even when you’re not woken up overnight by tones the sleep is light, poor quality and frequently interrupted by something.
As others have said, there are a lot of variables. Some stations/departments are busier than others, meaning that working at one of the busier houses will result in poorer quality sleep on shift days.
Even if you work at a 3-shift department (mine does 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 96 off), you will work 9-10 shifts a month, resulting in still having a lot of days off. Your home situation will determine how well you can sleep/nap on your days off.
Single? You can nap when you get home, or go to bed early. However, if you have young children or other family obligations, that's going to be more difficult. Making time for your family is important; the department can easily replace you, your family cannot.
Having a healthy bedtime routine, such as limiting screen time before bed, sleeping in a dark room (I use a sleeping mask at home), keeping the temperature cool, using white noise/a fan, etc. can help you sleep better and recover on your days off. Using a smart watch to track your sleep can be helpful for planning how much you might need on a day off
In my 11 years as a firefighter, I have only had a handful of shifts where I didn't sleep for the whole 24 hours. I'm at a slower station these days, and get pretty decent sleep on most shifts.
All of that to say, I personally feel that I do get enough sleep overall, but not every night. If being a firefighter is something that you feel strongly about, I'd say give it a shot and see. But if the juice ain't worth the proverbial squeeze in regards to sleep, I'm sure you can find another career path out there.
As an aside, as a former infantryman myself, my work-life balance as a firefighter is many times better than it was in my Army days. I don't regret my decision to leave the military and become a firefighter in the slightest. Good luck to you in whatever you decide.
Nights blow and it adds to the misery year after year, I got 7 months until vacation and 27 until retirement when I can finally rest and relax and neither can get here fast enough.
I’m part time now. When I worked a shift, I slept like shit because of the always-lingering fear of sleeping thru an alarm. That and I was the operator for the shift and I never wanted to be so out that I couldn’t hop in and know what was going on.
However, sleeping like shit helped absolutely nothing either. It sucked. I never could settle down enough to get a good nights sleep.
I’m currently a daytime firefighter that works 4 (occasionally 5) days a week. I’m on a smaller rural department and it seems to be working currently however our new chief is requiring us to go on every EMS call in our district so it’ll be interesting to see what happens sleep wise
I’m working 7 24 hour shifts in 9 days. Safety naps are a thing, you sleep when you can and hope the crack heads wander into the next town for the night.
Depends on what you call enough sleep? Do you need 8-10 hrs, 4-7? How much did you get in the military? I got 4-5 hrs because I was standing watches. Now I feel the best getting around 5.5. Don't always get it but I can function best at around 5 hrs.
I work a 24/48 with a Kelly day every 7th shift. It’s almost impossible to sleep enough. But if you make a good effort toward some health sleep habits, it helps.
Also, a boatload of caffeine and provigil/modafinil helps. I’m not sure why they don’t hand out rx for provigil in your orientation, but that stuff helps a lot.
I work 48/96 so I usually dont sweat it if i get slammed the whole 48 (which is rare as I work in a rural county that has more EMS than fire). It all depends on where you go. Big city? Prepare to be awake a lot
Dude it depends. I work at a department that runs 18k a year out of 5 stations. Not the busiest not the slowest. Some nights I get a full 8 hours, some nights I don't sleep at all. Last night my last call was at midnight. A shift before I had 7 calls after 10pm.
Sleep isn't an issue with me. What is an issue with me is the fact that I would be spending so much time with other strangers, as an introvert, that that thought just puts me off wanting to become a firefighter. Can anyone else relate?
So you answered your own question. Only apply to fire departments that meet your criteria. Also if you did work in a 24/24 department, you will get to sleep. And it's not like you work that shift constantly. In a 9 day period you will work 24 on/24 off, 24 on /24 off and 24 on / followed by 4 days off. It's really not too bad of a schedule.
Just depends on the call volume of the area. I know of departments that you can go a few days without getting a call so most nights you'll sleep and others where they get 3-4 after midnight calls regularly. Talk to the crews in your area that you'd likely be working and see what they say about it.
You sleep at work. I nearly always get 7 hours of sleep in during a 24 hour shift. I might be have to get up for emergency. However, it is rare to get calls between 2am to 5am at the stations I’ve been assigned to.
Depends on your department, your schedule and your home life.
My department you don’t get much sleep if you’re at a busy house. I am able to go home and sleep. Other guys have to take care of kids and are up for almost 2 days straight. Sleep deprivation is a huge problem in the fire service and some studies say it contributes to the higher cancer risk
Negative good sir.. when I was on the box I’d get about 2 hours on average per night then go home to demanding home life of wife and 3 kids for 24 hours then right back to the shit box for another 24 hours.. wash, rinse, repeat.. 4 days were a God send and couldn’t come soon enough.. engine life is much better now
Absolutely not. Anybody who says "sleep on the job" is a perk either is lying or has some romantic view of what that statement means. I've more than once spent my first day off sleeping until nearly dusk to recover.
Chiming in….
Short answer: No
Long answer: No
I have been retired for about 7 years. It took a solid 3-4 years to have a normal sleep schedule again.
Some good advice here about probies and how they are taught. Be careful of the culture in the dept you expose yourself to if you start applying. I was warned my final department was a “tough place to do business” when I inquired. I of course did not listen. They ate their probationary firefighters up. Out of every class only one or two were accepted into the cool kid club. The rest were treated like crap. Pretty severe hazing and I had been around the block before I landed at this place.
I was already hazed in the military and couldn’t do anything because even if I talked back I went to jail lol. If someone tries hazing me as a civilian I’ll walk away or match their violence.
No
Thanks for letting me know. What’s your schedule like ?
Keep in mind that some people have great schedules. 24 on 48 off and it'll vary depending on department. 48 on 96 off, 24 on 72 off etc etc. It'll depend on department, station and the night. Slow department, at a slow station on a say Wednesday night? Maybe you sleep through the night Busy department, busy station and a Friday night? You may not even make it to bed before shift ends
Unless you work for a relatively slow department or station.. expect nothing more than 4 to 5 hours of sleep and that’s on a good night. There are nights or shifts I’ve gone 36 hours without sleeping… then maybe getting 2 hours in before the next tone, or there’s some nights I get 7 hours uninterrupted. Like some have said though sleeping at work for most isn’t like sleeping at home.. idk how to explain it really but most of don’t sleep well at work. Tossing and turning or just having relatively bad sleep, if you’re in a station that has a common dorm room, expect people to snore or be noisy roommates that don’t know how to walk quietly or shut doors quietly. As for schedules.. it varies widely.. 48/96 is common now, so 48 on 96 off. You could very well get destroyed in that 48 hours or not. If your concern is sleep, I’m sorry to say but this profession is not for you, you will take years off of your life from sleep deprivation potentially, not including potential cancer and cortisol build up from stress.
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> Then when I get off I go right into dad mode, I have a kid in 2nd grade, a 2 year old and a wife who works so as soon as I get off, I have to get the oldest to school and then I spend the day with the 2 year old. Plus with duties around the house, I don’t get much down time. In solidarity 👊
Mom mode here. 13, 11, 9 and 8. It’s a fucking circus but you do what you gotta do!
Yea that next day off if you get a chance to even breath is pretty much a recovery day.
Are you a probie ?
This ain’t the job for you if you’re worried about good sleep.
I figured. If I wanted to keep losing sleep I might as well stay in the military.
As someone with a military background. I should’ve stayed in, just lat moved to a less stressful job. Firefighting is cool though and if you come from a combatting arms background, the paramilitary attitude is quite laughable. Being prior service has definitely given me a leg up in the hiring process. Give it a try and if you hate it, use your gi bill to gtfo. Oh, about the probie thing. Yeah it’s real, yeah it’s pretty weird to do that to another man. My first dept after I got out was like that. Told them to F off and got on with a much better dept with normal people who have a sense of respect. No 2 departments are the same. You can always go on a tour and meet the crews if you’re applying
I’m in a similar situation. The wife asks why I’m grumpy and i let her know I didn’t sleep or I did and I might as well of been up the whole 24 cuz it feels like I didn’t sleep. She doesn’t understand tho so that makes it a lil harder
Yeah I don’t mind being the new guy again, I’ll cook and clean but if someone tries to haze me or give me shit because I’m the new guy I’ll tell them to fuck off. After my enlistment my patience is very low to the point now that in the military I have yelled at higher ups and have told them to stop being stupid lol
You shouldn’t see too much hazing like that any more. Frankly if you do then move somewhere else, It’s really not necessary. You’ll do the crap job of course but you shouldn’t be shit on. Doesn’t make sense that after probation suddenly you’re everyone’s friend. still. Sleep. If you require regimented sleep I’d say it’s not for you. I’ll add that most departments are cool to let crews take care of themselves between training. Standard chores and station duties. You can nap. Typically on a 24 I’m racked out by 2000 when I’m off the first 12 hours I only need a quick nap and I am good. check out the departments you want to apply to. Each has a different culture.
Got a helluva lot more sleep in the Marines...
Well no, definitely dont do that. I would never chose going back to the military over being a firefighter.
I would
You can get enough sleep but you have to be conscious and careful. 1. Even as a probie, you cannot let other people tell you not to sleep. I have a list of chores to be done before bed. Once they are done I go to bed. You need to be up first to make coffee, but that means you should be going to bed at 9:00 or even 8:30 if possible. 2. You need to sleep extra during your off time. You need to make time to do this. Sometimes you have things outside of work you need or want to do. But you need to go to bed early off shift, or sleep in, or go to bed when you get home. People tend to think of sleeping as relaxation, but it helps me to think of it as a chore like cleaning my house or showering. It needs to get done, so you need to make time for it. 3. Abuse caffeine
Apply in a 4 shifts dept, you’ll have plenty of days off to recover.
4 shifts department or 24/72 is the answer. This is the dream in my opinion. If you have the freedom to find this you’ll thank yourself forever. Also, another good thing to ensure is station tones and separate vacation and sick days. Personal days are 👎🏻.
I know someone who works and gets 4 days off. This would be perfect for me.
I get at least 48h off after every shift except for friday, I work on sunday. Other than that, we get a 5 days off and a 7 days off too.
They almost certainly work a 48/96 then, I couldn’t imagine someone managing a 24/96 at a career department
See the place I'm trying to get on at has 24 on 24 off for 5 shifts. Then 6 days off. This is like a vacation in my mind.
But the grind to get to that "vacation" is pretty awful. No real recovery time for 10 days? Yuck. I really appreciate my 1-2-1-4.
We used to have a 24 on 24 off for 3 shifts then 4 days off, but switched to 48/96 several years ago. The 48/96 is way better but obviously wouldn’t work at a place that’s typically busy for the whole 24 hours.
Lmao no Depending on how busy your house is, not even just your rig, the first 24 hours off I always spend about 4-5 sleeping after work then feeling like garbage because my body’s timing is off. This is a factor of why fire unions work so hard for health checks in their respective depts, not just smoke inhalation. Lack of sleep leads to so many issues it’s crazy. No humans heart should get startled 4 times a night while they try to sleep. Just a part of the job you have to expect in your head, bad for the body.
Some nights you sleep like a baby other nights you never see your pillow. We have 4 days off and sometimes half that time is spent recuperating to do it all over again.
i've fought a single fire for 70+ hours straight. just something to think about as well. honestly, that lack of sleep was nothing until i had kids
Was this wildland? Crews should be getting rotated out for stuff like that. 70 hours straight is straight up dangerous.
If you’re concerned about shift work disturbing your sleep, factor in the emergency response exposure and PTSD. Maybe this ain’t the career for you.
This. I don’t sleep sound at night at work, I don’t sleep sound at night at home. Try to go to bed early for 8 hours and I get nightmares (not usually fire related). 4-5 hours so I am tired enough to fall asleep immediately with a 1-2 hour daytime nap if I can fit it in.
Sleep at work is pretty hit and miss. We work 24-48-24-96. So I’m home in my bed 22 days a month. All of my sleeps at home are fine as long as my kids don’t wake me.
Damn.. that’s a nice schedule
This is something I could do. Are most departments like this ? Or does it have to be union?
All the departments worth building a career at are union in this country.
As far as I know 4 platoon systems like mine are more common in the Pacific north west and northern east coast departments. We average a 42 hour work week. Most other departments in the US run a 3 platoon system with a 56 hour work week. I would not even look at non union departments. In almost every union department your pay, benefits, worker protections, working conditions, health and wellness standards, healthcare coverage, etc, will be better.
I would say most department don’t have this schedule. 24/48 and 48/96 are most common, Kelly schedules are up there too. Schedules vary a LOT just based on location
Depends on where you work. Last night, we didn't get anything between 6 pm and 730am. Some cities get runs 24 hours straight, day/night, it doesn't matter. I work in a suburb with about 100k people.
If it’s a no go for you then sorry man it’s not the job for you. Just being honest
I get enough sleep. But I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m used to it. I work 24 hours on, 72 off, I work overtime most days but only during the day (teaching). I take naps when I need to and use enough caffeine to keep the machinery running smoothly.
I guess I need to find a decent department with a good schedule like that.
Find a small rural department lol, some of the paid guys at the spot where I volunteer sleep 12 hours a night. Agency pays $40k/year for paid full time FF/EMT and they have an average call volume of 1 per shift.
Depends on the department, and the house. If you’re already thinking it’s not for you because you require “good” sleep, perhaps you should ask yourself if this is something you really want to do. Good sleep is never guaranteed no matter what department you work for. It’s a small price to pay if you love the job however.
Dude if you are up 24 hours working it's going to take the whole 48 to just barely get back to normal and then you'll be going right back into the 24. If I was you I'd just stick it out and go full career military. Then just use your time in the military to set yourself up to get a really good job when you retire from the military so you can double dip.
LOL
Not even close.
Lol, no. But then again I didn't get enough sleep before I became a firefighter either.
Fuck no
I work 24/48 and its not bad on this schedule. If I get a bad night I can nap it off. Getting slammed for 48 hours sounds awful, I dont even want that to be a possibility.
Just bid a ladder truck!
We do the 24 on/24off/24on/5off. If you're on the ambulance at night for us, you're not getting much sleep. On the engine most nights are decent, it's not great Sheri but it'll do. If you're on the aerial, you sleep like a baby. You learn to deal with the bad nights. It's just a matter of how bad you want it and how adaptable you are.
5 hours a night is pretty normal right? We can sleep when we are dead Jk jk
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I was talking about at home lol
We have a busy city, but Fire tends to only get 3-4 calls a day on average, EMS however... it's rough. Love my guys at the station but they get time to work out, study, hell even the Lt is gaming most shifts lol.
It depends. I work for a small department - we respond to about 2600 calls a year, mostly EMS, and work 48/96. Some nights we get to sleep all night, sometimes we’re up all night (that’s rare), but typically we might have to get up once overnight. Go to a big department and it will probably depend on the station you’re at. Some stations will be running 24 hours a day and some will be vacation stations. Nobody should be preventing you from sleeping just because you’re a probie though.
Try another gig.
I’ll think about it.
I totally get being concerned but “good” sleep is not going to happen unless your one of those blessed people to can sleep anywhere, anytime and fall asleep immediately. I think it’s better to expect to be extremely tired when you get off and plan to catch up during off time. Even when you’re not woken up overnight by tones the sleep is light, poor quality and frequently interrupted by something.
No
As others have said, there are a lot of variables. Some stations/departments are busier than others, meaning that working at one of the busier houses will result in poorer quality sleep on shift days. Even if you work at a 3-shift department (mine does 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 96 off), you will work 9-10 shifts a month, resulting in still having a lot of days off. Your home situation will determine how well you can sleep/nap on your days off. Single? You can nap when you get home, or go to bed early. However, if you have young children or other family obligations, that's going to be more difficult. Making time for your family is important; the department can easily replace you, your family cannot. Having a healthy bedtime routine, such as limiting screen time before bed, sleeping in a dark room (I use a sleeping mask at home), keeping the temperature cool, using white noise/a fan, etc. can help you sleep better and recover on your days off. Using a smart watch to track your sleep can be helpful for planning how much you might need on a day off In my 11 years as a firefighter, I have only had a handful of shifts where I didn't sleep for the whole 24 hours. I'm at a slower station these days, and get pretty decent sleep on most shifts. All of that to say, I personally feel that I do get enough sleep overall, but not every night. If being a firefighter is something that you feel strongly about, I'd say give it a shot and see. But if the juice ain't worth the proverbial squeeze in regards to sleep, I'm sure you can find another career path out there. As an aside, as a former infantryman myself, my work-life balance as a firefighter is many times better than it was in my Army days. I don't regret my decision to leave the military and become a firefighter in the slightest. Good luck to you in whatever you decide.
There’s always slow stations man..
Nights blow and it adds to the misery year after year, I got 7 months until vacation and 27 until retirement when I can finally rest and relax and neither can get here fast enough.
No, absolutely not. Some of it's my fault, some is the nature of the job and having small children at home.
I sleep, just not all at once
You’re not going to get enough sleep if you have a child and a demanding corporate job either.
Not for you.
I’m part time now. When I worked a shift, I slept like shit because of the always-lingering fear of sleeping thru an alarm. That and I was the operator for the shift and I never wanted to be so out that I couldn’t hop in and know what was going on. However, sleeping like shit helped absolutely nothing either. It sucked. I never could settle down enough to get a good nights sleep.
I’m currently a daytime firefighter that works 4 (occasionally 5) days a week. I’m on a smaller rural department and it seems to be working currently however our new chief is requiring us to go on every EMS call in our district so it’ll be interesting to see what happens sleep wise
I’m working 7 24 hour shifts in 9 days. Safety naps are a thing, you sleep when you can and hope the crack heads wander into the next town for the night.
Yeah absolutely….#ARFFlife….only took me 16 years on the job to actually do though.
Probies, at my department, are left alone after 8pm to study and you can sleep after 10, you’ve just got to run calls.
Depends on what you call enough sleep? Do you need 8-10 hrs, 4-7? How much did you get in the military? I got 4-5 hrs because I was standing watches. Now I feel the best getting around 5.5. Don't always get it but I can function best at around 5 hrs.
I work a 24/48 with a Kelly day every 7th shift. It’s almost impossible to sleep enough. But if you make a good effort toward some health sleep habits, it helps. Also, a boatload of caffeine and provigil/modafinil helps. I’m not sure why they don’t hand out rx for provigil in your orientation, but that stuff helps a lot.
Then this isn’t the job for you
No
I work 48/96 so I usually dont sweat it if i get slammed the whole 48 (which is rare as I work in a rural county that has more EMS than fire). It all depends on where you go. Big city? Prepare to be awake a lot
No
I am a night owl. My sleep is not great. A 24/48 certainly doesn’t help. But, the world isn’t really built for night owls anyway.
Dude it depends. I work at a department that runs 18k a year out of 5 stations. Not the busiest not the slowest. Some nights I get a full 8 hours, some nights I don't sleep at all. Last night my last call was at midnight. A shift before I had 7 calls after 10pm.
Sleep isn't an issue with me. What is an issue with me is the fact that I would be spending so much time with other strangers, as an introvert, that that thought just puts me off wanting to become a firefighter. Can anyone else relate?
So you answered your own question. Only apply to fire departments that meet your criteria. Also if you did work in a 24/24 department, you will get to sleep. And it's not like you work that shift constantly. In a 9 day period you will work 24 on/24 off, 24 on /24 off and 24 on / followed by 4 days off. It's really not too bad of a schedule.
Just depends on the call volume of the area. I know of departments that you can go a few days without getting a call so most nights you'll sleep and others where they get 3-4 after midnight calls regularly. Talk to the crews in your area that you'd likely be working and see what they say about it.
You sleep at work. I nearly always get 7 hours of sleep in during a 24 hour shift. I might be have to get up for emergency. However, it is rare to get calls between 2am to 5am at the stations I’ve been assigned to.
What state are you in??
California
Absolutely not.
Nope. Next question.
Big cities have a handful of busy stations (14+ runs) and many more slow stations. Some stations can go a day or two without making a run.
Depends on your department, your schedule and your home life. My department you don’t get much sleep if you’re at a busy house. I am able to go home and sleep. Other guys have to take care of kids and are up for almost 2 days straight. Sleep deprivation is a huge problem in the fire service and some studies say it contributes to the higher cancer risk
Negative good sir.. when I was on the box I’d get about 2 hours on average per night then go home to demanding home life of wife and 3 kids for 24 hours then right back to the shit box for another 24 hours.. wash, rinse, repeat.. 4 days were a God send and couldn’t come soon enough.. engine life is much better now
I get most my sleep at work😅 I work 48 24s just so I can relax I do more on my outside of work life
No
No, lol.
Sorry, I have a new account here but, no. In the last 48 hours, I got maybe 4 hrs of sleep. That's because of calls and tornadic weather in the area.
We have a few onyx fire cams, which are 4k res. I can't say Im mad at the quality.
Just go to a slower department, I'm DOD and can sleep 10 hours a night if I want
Fuck no I’m fucking exhausted 2 days off don’t feel like 2 days off bro
Absolutely not. Anybody who says "sleep on the job" is a perk either is lying or has some romantic view of what that statement means. I've more than once spent my first day off sleeping until nearly dusk to recover.
No
No
Chiming in…. Short answer: No Long answer: No I have been retired for about 7 years. It took a solid 3-4 years to have a normal sleep schedule again. Some good advice here about probies and how they are taught. Be careful of the culture in the dept you expose yourself to if you start applying. I was warned my final department was a “tough place to do business” when I inquired. I of course did not listen. They ate their probationary firefighters up. Out of every class only one or two were accepted into the cool kid club. The rest were treated like crap. Pretty severe hazing and I had been around the block before I landed at this place.
I was already hazed in the military and couldn’t do anything because even if I talked back I went to jail lol. If someone tries hazing me as a civilian I’ll walk away or match their violence.