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Volunteer Overnight Duty Crews
My dept is a small suburban vollie department with about 30 active interior guys. We run a squad co, engine, and truck co. I am trying to figure out a way to have volunteered over night duty crews or basically, "your night, your responsible to respond to incidental and single resource mutual aid" all while figuring out how to handle to volunteer percentages for those who do and do not show up on their scheduled nights. ex: its Thursday at 0230, Manny Moe and Jack show up along with Harry because its their night to handle the AFA. Everyone else takes the night off unless it goes out for a box assignment. The way it stands now, anyone who did not show up does not get the percentage credits for that run, and only the responding 4 do. Any thoughts or programs already in place to alleviate said issue?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Reg Mathis on
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Hey Rich,
I have always liked this idea. I would have no problem with spending one night a week at the station.
Take it to the station and see what they think.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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A volly dept (paid on call actually) does have something similar. There are no dorms at the dept, but there is a schedule and those on the schedule show up if toned out. The basic way I understand how they do it is those who work shift work at the mill, etc have first choice of what days they want to sign up for and then it goes by seniority after.
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Permalink Reply by FF Nick on
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Good luck! We tried it a few years back and we had 30-40 active all full volly (no paid on-call or paid overnight) although there were maybe a handful willing to do it, it was far from enough to staff a rig. Most nights nobody would stay and if someone did it was just enough to have a driver in the engine.
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Permalink Reply by Brandon on
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I really liked the idea, i am a member of Jacksonville rescue in Jacksonville NC, they have a contract with the county that the truck will go anywhere requested but bedies that point. there is always at least 4 ppl at the station or on duty to be able to be in close proximity of the station. there is a thing that you must make at least so many hours a month to stay active and meet trainning requirements weather you train or not. but you are required to make 2o hours a month to stay active so youare either put on a shift day or you can come down anytime and run calls. the station is mostly made up of marines that want to give back to the community it works out really good there is always a crash truck rolling on calls and when there is enough the 2 frist responder trucks and ambulance are up also. but yes work detail/training hours is a great way to make things work and build a working relationship with the folks but i would bring it up to your board and members of the dept look into sop's sog's of other depts that do thingx like this and come up with ya'lls own its also a great way to satisfy ISO and NFPA requirements that as soon as the tomes drop you have 1,000 gallons of water out the door. good luck
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Permalink Reply by Michael A Freezer on
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Not sure if you use a point system or not or how you calculate your volunteer percentages. Maybe you could assign points to anyone who volunteers for the on-call crew whether they run calls that night or not. Ex: Many, Moe, Jack and Harry are on call for Thursday night, they get 2 points assigned for covering. If they run calls they get additional credit for those also. I know fire software systems such as firehouse software can calculate points for you for any activity, you assign the value.(We calculate points for a Pennsylvania Tax Credit for Volunteering). If you are not responding to calls or not volunteering for on call than you do not get points, I am sure there is enough opportunity to make up percentage credits elsewhere. The law of averages says it should all work out in the end, Caeteris paribus; all things being equal. I hope I made sense.
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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on
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Here's what I'm wondering...if you're a small dept., I'm assuming you have a low call volume. So, why do you want duty crews?
I know where my brother lives in Wake County, NC...the vollie dept.'s down there, many of them run duty crews, but their volume is 1000, 1500, 2000 calls per year. I don't know you numbers....my dept. runs 300-400 calls a year, and we don't do duty crews because it's not worth the time to sit around doing nothing all night, when alot of our active guys live within 4-8 blocks.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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I'm not a mathematician, but I would think that in the long run, everything would even out. There would be some variables. Saturday nights could be busy but you never get a call on Mondays.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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My department runs duty crews and it works out that only half the crew shows up or spends the night there at the station. We run about a 1000 calls out of 2 stations with no EMS. there is nothing stating that any member can show up and respond to the call.
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Permalink Reply by Holly on
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Maybe at the end of the month all members that held up their end of the deal on their assigned nights got points for each call. Those who did not only get credit for the calls that they attended.
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Permalink Reply by Just Plain Craig Moyer on
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My company along with 2 others split the week. We each have assigned nights and that crew covers all three districts. Yes they are very close to each other and difference in distance is made up in response time. It works very well. VEry few times does a company not have a duty crew. Usually there are more then the usually 4 people who signed up. We have had at least 12 people overnight.
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Permalink Reply by Rob on
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QUOTE:ex: its Thursday at 0230, Manny Moe and Jack show up along with Harry because its their night to handle the AFA. Everyone else takes the night off unless it goes out for a box assignment. END QUOTE
We try our absolute best to avoid that type of mentality. Believe it or not one reason why afa's activate is because there is actually a fire. Accepting that guys want to stay in bed before it gets called in as a working fire does nothing but add excess time to response times and makes life difficult for those on scene in the first rig and in my opinion lets down the public who we serve.
We started a station staffing program (free accommodation 24/7/365, but you must run calls when there) at my vollie station with the sole purpose of reducing response times. Believe me, it has made a huge difference. Also, we have managed to instill a culture of 'back fill the station' and 'back up the 1st out piece' on ALL calls for those that respond from home. Questions get asked if you turn up for the full assignment but not the alarm assignment prior.
Strangely though, something that I usually frown upon has contributed to our success in this regard, and that is 'competition' in getting to calls before the neighboring station does. Although it does breed anger and hatred at times, it does help get response times down and man power levels up.
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Permalink Reply by Reap on
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Though we aren't busy as a company, we have come to realize that guys are working 2 and 3 jobs, aside from their personal lives and getting up at 2am for that CO run or whatever "incidentals" have you, we are just trying to take a burden off of the volunteer by giving a night or 2 or whatever, off from running the accident or investigative type calls. Also pressing more responsibility of saying, you MUST make your night should a call go out, not giving the option of the R&R, or reset and rollover. Also you'll know who is showing up.
Also the point of "sitting around not doing anything" these calls would be run from home. Say for instance 10pm-6am, so the members can do whatever it is they do at home at night. If they get a call, they come up and handle it. If not, their sleep was not disturbed and they go to work or wherever in the AM. Thus the principle of just ensuring firefighters answer the alarm with a fully staffed crew, all while not constantly being burnt at night.
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