24-hour shifts touted as healthier, safer option for firefighters

The Waterloo Fire Rescue station on Columbia Street West is pictured on Friday, Oct. 23, 2015. (Max Wark / CTV Kitchener)

Though it may sound counter-intuitive, firefighters in Waterloo say working 24-hour shifts is actually a healthier and safer schedule than the one they’re currently on.

Waterloo Fire Rescue will move to a 24-hour shift model starting Dec. 31.

It will replace the current scheduling practice, which involves four 14-hour night shifts followed by four 10-hour day shifts, followed by four days off.

Instead, firefighters will work one or two full days per week – and never two days in a row.

“They still work the same amount of hours,” fire chief Richard Hepditch said in an interview.

“It averages out to a 42-hour work week.”

Waterloo Professional Firefighters Association president Dean Good says the move to 24-hour shifts is something firefighters have sought for “at least 10 years.”

He cites the September fire that destroyed the Dollarama in Parkdale Plaza as a good example of why the scheduling change is good for firefighters.

That fire broke out just as his night shift started.

By the time his 14-hour shift was over and necessary paperwork was filled out, Good had only a few hours left before he had to report back for his next shift.

“It would have been good if the shift, after that big fire, could have just gone home and been in their bed,” he said.

“Instead they were coming back in less than 10 hours later, to work another 14-hour night shift. On the 24-hour shift, I’d have a busy night like that … but the next night I’d be at home, in bed.”

Known as “the Toronto model” for one of the first major Canadian cities to adopt it, 24-hour shifts have been a fixture in Kitchener for several years.

Cambridge started its own pilot program this year.

Hepditch says that 82 per cent of full-time firefighting services in Ontario have already switched to 24-hour shifts. It’s believed that percentage is even higher in the United States.

Waterloo’s program will be re-evaluated after a two-year test run of its own.

It will only be implemented permanently if it turns out to be cost-neutral, Hepditch said.