Shifts and Personnel
Providing Emergency Services 24/7 with a Volunteer Staff
Fire and EMS calls are frequent in the Eudora community. While some days are quiet, others can be very busy. Though the daily average is two calls per day, it is not unheard of to actually have two calls at the same time! So far, the record is seven calls in one day, including three emergencies dispatched in five minutes.
In order to have adequate staff always available it is necessary to place the department's EMT's and firefighters on specific shifts. The primary goal of using shifts is to provide around the clock coverage. This insures the first due fire engine has a crew and that EMT's are always available. The secondary goal of the shift assignments is to reduce the burnout factor created by Eudora's growing call volume.
Each shift is based on either a 12 or 24 hour time period which begins and ends at 6:00 A.M. and/or 6:00 P.M. The scheduled responders make the needed changes in their lives to devote the required time for their assigned shift. When needed, the volunteers will swap spots or work extra shifts to insure proper coverage. The department also has a back-up crew of unscheduled personnel to draw from.
Weekdays are covered by personnel who can leave work, are on night jobs, or have time free during normal business hours. This is A shift. Week nights and weekends are covered by rotating crews on B, C, D, and E shifts.
Crew Members
A typical shift consists of seven fire department members. The shift is supervised by a lieutenant. Members are assigned to an EMS response truck and a fire engine. The EMS SUV operates as a quick response vehicle and is taken home or to work by one of the shift's EMTs. When an EMS call is paged, the EMT with the quick response vehicle responds directly to the scene. The remainder of the crew meet at the fire station and respond the fire engine. A chief and/or additional engine is dispatched as well if the call is for a car wreck or critical patient.
The crew members keep up with their assigned shifts and vehicles via an on-line fire department web site. Lieutenants make specific assignments prior to each shift. This allows crew members to swap places to accommodate schedule conflicts between volunteering, jobs, and home life. Personnel off shift are paged to handle any call exceeding the capability of the on-duty shift.
You can click on the links below to visit each shift, view the personnel, and learn more about the people who respond to the emergencies.
Not all personnel are on shift assignments. Visit our back up team:
