Burning Question

Today’s burning question: Do fire departments/EMS organizations have to pay personnel for the time spent attending training for EMT and paramedic while off-duty? Answer: There are several important issues that arise including what is the agreement between the parties, are the employees public employees, and does the training fit into an exception under the FLSA.

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Today’s burning question: I am a career firefighter plus I work part time for my city as a bus driver. Can the city pay me different rates of pay and does the city have to include the hours from my bus driving job when calculating overtime for my fire department job?

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Today’s burning question: Our firefighters work a standard 24-48 hour schedule, with a 14 day work period coinciding with a 14 day pay cycle. Under this system firefighters work 96 hours one pay period, 120 hours the next, and 120 hours the next, on a repeating basis throughout the year.

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Today’s burning question: Can we delete comments that we find offensive on our fire department’s Facebook page? Answer: That question is actually a heck of a lot more complicated than you might imagine… just ask the City of Beech Grove, Indiana.

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Today’s burning question: I heard a rumor that there are some new overtime rules coming out soon. Will these new rules have an impact on fire departments? Answer: That is a great question, and one I get asked a lot these days.

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Today’s burning question: In a combination department without a formal chain of command, do full-time Captains have authority over a part-time Chief Officer? Does any case law differentiate between the two? Answer: The answer cannot come from the law, it has to come from the department’s leadership to establish the chain of command.

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Today’s burning question: I am a career firefighter and tore my left MCL on a medical call when a patient kicked me. I am receiving worker's comp, but I was wondering if a firefighter has the ability recover from the responsible party? Answer: A firefighter's ability to recover is going to depend initially on your state’s interpretation of the “Fireman’s Rule”.

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Today’s burning question: Is it foreseeable that municipal leaders and their firefighters may one day be able to work toward a common goal rather than fighting over every single issue? Answer: It would appear that long awaited day has arrived in Illinois.

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Today’s burning question: From a legal stand point would it be better to use an email forwarding system that sends work emails to firefighters’ personal email addresses or to provide each member with a true email account with log in and server space?

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Today’s burning question: I am assigned to our fire investigations unit and we are working on a policy to address how we handle the photos that we take. What do you recommend? Answer: My recommendation is you sit down with the following and determine what they want you to do:

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Today’s burning question: If one of our full-time engineers is assigned to an ambulance for the shift and the back-up engineer has an accident isn’t the department subject to a higher level of liability? Answer: Let me guess… you are an engineer and you don’t like working on the meat wagon?

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Today’s burning question: There is a township fire station directly across the street from my property, but because the property is physically in the city, the township says they cannot respond. Shouldn’t the closest fire department to an emergency respond?

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Today’s burning question: Given the newer NFPA/OSHA standards for our SCBAs, there's a glut of the older 'non-compliant' SCBAs for sale, Can they be used without liability issues? Answer: Asking the dreaded “liability” question virtually guarantees the answer that an attorney will give: no, they cannot be used without liability issues! Could a person give a starving man food without liability issues? Of course not!!!!

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Today’s burning question: If a misconduct complaint is filed against a fire chief, should subordinate chiefs be allowed to conduct the investigation? Answer: As a general rule, someone who has a potential conflict of interest should not be tasked with conducting a misconduct investigation

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