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What is the typical weekly/monthly schedule for a professional firefighter?

I heard they do something like 60 hour work weeks #firefighting #fire #fire-risk-management

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Ryan’s Answer

Can't speak for California, but here in Colorado, every major department I know of works 48 hours on, 96 hours off (2 days on, 4 days off). There may be a few left with the old 24 hour shifts. Wildland firefighting is totally different....wildland groups around here pretty much work a normal work week when they're not deployed...if they're fortunate enough to have permanent year-round positions, they may switch to a 4 10 hour shift schedule. Either way, its a 40 hour week. When deployed it's more like 18-hours a day for 2-weeks straight, but you're making major overtime $.

I've never heard of any firefighters working a 60 hour week...unless you're talking about the average over the course of a year. This is possible, but you have to consider the fact that you're probably asleep for 16 or so of those hours, so don't think 60 hours a week means you're working 6 10-hour days every week.
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Stephen’s Answer

Hi Jonathan,
Years ago, we used to have to work 54 hours a week. I guess they thought we sat around to much. LOL. In many of todays departments, they work a 2 10 hour days and then 2 14 hour nights. That figures out to be 42 hours a week. Then they have 4 days off in a row. There are still some departments that still work the standard 24 hours on 48 off. Not the shift I used to like but had to work it sometimes. Hope this answers you question.

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