Personnel

Approximately 80 people support the operations of the Fitchburg Fire Department: firefighters and fire officers, investigators, accountability team members, and a business manager. Each member falls into one of the following employment categories: career, paid-on-call/paid-on-premises, or intern.

Career Staff

Career staff are full-time employees of the City of Fitchburg who provide the core staffing of the on-duty response crews and are responsible for many additional duties such as: fire inspections, public education, maintenance of equipment, record keeping and numerous other administrative duties.

They work one of the following schedules depending on their position:

  • Monday - Friday, 8a.m. - 5p.m.
  • A 24-hour shift (7a.m. - 7a.m.) every third day (24 hrs on, 48 hours off)

Those working 24-hour shifts are assigned to A Shift, B Shift or C Shift.

Paid-On-Call / Paid-On-Premises

Paid-on-call (POC) and Paid-on-premises (POP) personnel are individuals who typically have primary employment outside the fire department, but are driven to help their community. They are sworn firefighters who work alongside the career staff and interns as part of the on-duty crew, assisting in daily activities including: emergency calls, routine fire inspections, equipment maintenance, and training. 

They are expected to respond to staff additional apparatus when: 1) more than one piece of Fitchburg apparatus is dispatched (such as a structure fire or motor vehicle crash); 2) both on-duty crews are involved in emergency calls; or 3) a neighboring department requests mutual aid.

Members of the support staff assist during emergency calls and frequently participate in other non-emergency activities around the fire stations.

Interns

Interns are college students who are enrolled in the fire science training program at Madison College (see Madison Area Technical College). They live and work in a Fitchburg fire house for up to two years. Each is assigned to one of the three shifts (A, B or C) and work as part of that fill-in crew except during the school day. More information about the Intern Program is available here.