Why firefighters get paid to go grocery shopping

Author: Juan Serrano January 16, 2016

I can see it now, You’re working hard all day then head to your local grocery store during one of your breaks or after work and see a big fire engine parked outside. You head inside the store to see 2-4 men in their uniforms obviously “on shift” looking for some food to buy. Some people’s first thoughts are “Why are my tax dollars paying for these men to go shopping?”. Sometimes these people get a little too angry. But everyone has a right to their own opinion. I think it’s because most people aren’t educated enough about the situation. I personally wouldn’t want my tax dollars to go to waste – at least not right in front of my eyes.

I hope in this post I will be able to explain to you it in detail why.

Let me first give you a little background about where I work. I work in an ALS fire department that has both fire engines and ambulances. When our station needs some food our captain usually sends out the medic crew (the 2 medics on the ambulance). To be honest, we don’t go to the store every day on our shift because we usually buy our food before we come to work. It’s cheaper that way for us due to where we work.

Why firefighters get paid to go grocery shopping

Firefighters could be dispatched to a call (a house fire, car fire, medical emergency, car accident, etc) at any time of the day, and we don’t need to be at our station to “get a call”. Most firefighters work 24-48 hour shifts and sometimes required to stay 72 to 96 hours, personally, my longest shift has been a 120 hr. I don’t know about you but I need to eat in that time. I almost eat too much at times (Not the healthiest eater either – that’s a talk for another day).

A quick talk about the process of how a “call” works. Let’s say a medical emergency. First, that a person calls 9-1-1 to get help. They are directed to a dispatch center where the dispatchers get the information about the emergency while multitasking and sending out the appropriate resources. A typical medical aid in my department sends out a fire engine and an ambulance. We get the call on our radios (whereever we may be in our district) and start to go to the call. The dispatchers obtain the rest of the information and discontinues the call. We arrive on the scene usually between 3-5 minutes and take care of whatever emergency the person is having.

As you can see, we don’t need to be at the station to dispatched to a call. What is necessary is that we stay in our district (the boundaries from where I station responds to).

If you see a firefighter at the store they will always have a radio on themselves. That’s so we will be able to respond to any emergency, regardless of our location.

I said it before, we work long shifts and our meals are not provided by the city or county; therefore, we must purchase our own food and prepare our own meals.

Firefighters are not given scheduled breaks nor given a mandatory lunch time. Our lunch is designated from 12-1pm but that does not mean we are promised that time off. There have been many times in which I didn’t eat lunch till 3 or 4 pm.

It’s funny that I’m writting about this subject because right now its 4:32pm at my station and I just finsihed lunch right now. It’s been a really busy day and im exhausted.

Some people argue and say why can’t we just bring our own food to work like most people. I understand that stance, let me explain our side of the argument. First and foremost, we are a family. I didn’t choose any of my co-workers, but I trust every single one of them with my life, because, well I have to.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like everyone in my family at work.

As a family, we like to eat with each other and talk with each other. It’s also cheaper for us to eat as a group. When we all eat together and not bring our own meals then we usually eat better. There are some good cooks at my station.

Not everyone eats with the group though. That’s because some co-workers have special diets they go on and choose to eat their own food they brought from home.

One reason you might be seeing your firefighter go to the store is, like I said before, they might be working longer than they expected. If we do work that extra day or 2 then obviously we wouldn’t have food with us.

Lastly, cooking as a group in the fire station is a tradition. We’ve been doing for years and years. I truly believe that it brings our group closer.

So as you can see were not paid to go shop, were paid to be ready, at all times, to respond to an emergency call. I hope I was able to answer all your questions about the subject and I’m sorry if you still don’t agree with it.

If you have any further questions or comments, please let me know below in the comment section. Or you can contact me personally.

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