Does your volunteer house have dedicated shifts?

My dept. currently has 25 members. We respond to the station when our pagers alert us, which is what I assume most volunteer dept's do. However, I was recently talking to a volunteer FF from a different area who was telling me his dept. is staffed by four volunteers all the time. I thought that was really cool seeing as it means quicker response times, more work getting done around the house, etc. I'm trying to get my dept. to see the benefits of this and maybe enact a dedicated shift program with two firefighters on each shift, Basically enough to immeaditly respond to an EMS call. Anyway... how many of your volunteer dept's run these dedicated shifts? If so, what benefits/issues/problems have you seen in doing so?

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Permalink Reply by Dewayne and Diana Bean on May 19, 2009 at 7:06pm

No, we don't the idea has been throwed a round a bit. Do not see this becoming something we could do. However during inclement weather and down times we usually have someone at the station.

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Permalink Reply by NOVAFireman on May 20, 2009 at 10:38am

Take a look at some of the counties surrounding Washington, DC. For example, Prince George's and Montgomery Counties in Maryland, Prince William and Loudoun Counties in Virginia have lots of departments that run duty crews. Some departments have assigned crews/shifts and rotate the days of the shift, others just take whoever shows up for the night/weekends. It's an area where some VFD's have 2 to 4 firestations and total run numbers anywhere from 2,000-4,000 calls a year counting runs made by career and volunteer crews.

Almost 90% of the departments are staffed by county career firefighters during the day, be it 8,10, or 12 hour shifts Mon.-Fri., or 7 days a week. After that, volunteer crews work the night and/or weekend side. Some VFD's are staffed 24/7 with county career engine, ladder, rescue, and/or medic crews. It just depends on what the VFD has requested the county for staffing.

The combination systems have their good points, but there can be a number of issues that come along with it. Number one issue is there's no home response in this area, and if a unit is not staffed with communications and so noted in CAD, the unit doesn't get dispatched on calls. For example, the career engine company staffs a VFD station from 0600-1800. When the career staff leaves at 1800 and no/or not enough volunteers show up to account for minimum staffing, the unit is out of service, and/or scratches on calls after 1800. In that case, the next available staffed unit gets dispatched.

Second issue is that there are a number of VFD's who do not have a lot of experianced people, and end up with an 18 year old fresh out of FF1 class riding as the officer on an engine, ladder, or rescue and an equaly experianced crew riding behind them. Some of those VFD's have admitted the lack of experianced and qualified personnel and have asked for career staffing. Those stations get a career company, and their volunteers ride with the paid crew, or staff a second unit if they have enough people.

I used to volunteer at a department that did engine and truck work. We had career staffing Mon.-Fri., for the engine and truck. For the longest time, we were able to staff both the engine and truck with a minimum of 4 each, and on some nights they both would be filled up. Membership participation started going down, and around the time I resigned, the place ended up only being able to staff an engine with 3, if staffed at all. This went on for a while before the leadership got 24/7 career staffing for the engine and was able to boost the membership. From what I understand, they're doing good now.

Does your volunteer house have dedicated shifts?

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