Several years ago I wrote a column entitled, “Why I want to be a firefighter.” The reasons were obvious – good pay and health and dental benefits, time-and-a-half for overtime, lots of vacation days and holidays — and the perk of sleeping on the job. Retirement pay includes lifetime health insurance for the firefighter and spouse and almost equals the working salary.
Yes, I’d climb ladders or drive hook-and-ladder trucks for this kind of work.
Well, guess what? The job benefits are even better now. Under a pilot program already embedded in the Palo Alto firefighters’ contract, there’s a new staffing schedule – two 24-hour working days and four 24-hour off days. It’s referred to as the 48-96 program. I plotted that out on a calendar, and with this schedule there occasionally are weeks when firefighters work weekends and then get five days off Monday through Friday.
Cushy. Most of us work five days and get two days off.
I know a firefighter’s work can be dangerous at times, especially when confronting blazes. But 80 to 90 percent of the calls the department now get are for medical reasons – accidents, heart attacks, emergency transportation, etc. The rest are fires and hazardous materials calls. And thanks to smoke detectors, the number of big fires has substantially decreased here and around the country.