Longview Fire Department begins yearlong trial of 48-hour-on/96-hour-off shift schedule

Longview — At the Longview City Council meeting on Jan. 9, 2025, Longview Fire Chief Stillman announced the fire department began a one-year trial switching operational personnel to a 48-hour-on/96-hour-off shift schedule.

"We switched and altered to a 48 hour on duty, 96 hour off duty shift schedule," Chief Stillman told the council as he described the department's decision and the committee process that led to it.

The change follows a multi-year internal discussion and a department-wide vote. Chief Stillman said a committee representing ranks and stations vetted data and recommended the change; "just under 81% of the fire department wanted to make this shift change and do it for a trial period of 1 year to see how we like it," he said. The department will convene the committee every three months during the trial to evaluate outcomes.

Why it matters

Officials told council the schedule aims to help recruiting and give personnel longer blocks of time off, and that the trial's success will be judged by operational metrics including overtime, sick-time use, vehicle accidents and EMS quality indicators.

Details and council questions

Chief Stillman reviewed the department's historical shift patterns and said the current trial answers a national trend among fire departments. He acknowledged "there's still a lot of unknowns" and listed areas the department will monitor, including whether extended shifts affect in-ambulance medical performance. "That's one of the benchmarks or the markers that we're gonna be paying attention to through our data collection process on our EMS QAQI process to see if we're seeing any increases in that or decreases in that," he said.

Council members asked how the new schedule affects ambulance assignments and overtime. Councilwoman Pirtle asked specifically about limits on ambulance duty; Chief Stillman said the department instituted a rule that "you can't be on the ambulance more than 48 hours" and noted that, because of overtime, callbacks and shift trades, 48-hour coverage has already occurred informally.

Councilmember Clemons asked about current staffing levels. Chief Stillman replied the department is fully staffed and is recruiting over-hires to cover training absences; those over-hires, he said, would transition into full-time roles over time.

Station moves during construction

Council members also asked where crews and equipment will operate while a station is rebuilt. A staff member handling operations explained that moves begun Dec. 30 used existing city facilities: the crew at Station 7 moved to the former Station 4 on East George Ritchie Road so that a double-company crew could stay together, and the single-company crew from Station 4 moved to the old Station 8 near the post office. "Station 4 out in Spring Hill is now Station 7," the staff member said, and the city is maintaining eight staffed stations during the project.

Next steps

The department will monitor the trial quarterly and report outcomes to council. Chief Stillman said the committee will evaluate whether the schedule reduces overtime, affects recruitment and whether any safety markers change; the city will revisit the schedule after the one-year trial.

Ending

Chief Stillman closed his presentation by noting the department began the change despite winter weather and reiterated the trial's monitoring plan: "The committee has made the commitment to monitoring it every 3 months and reconvening and trouble shooting any problems or asking the hard questions and, evaluating the information and data sets," he said.