Sedgwick County firefighters weigh in on schedule change

Yahoo

12-07-2025

PARK CITY, Kan. (KSNW) — A major schedule shift at the Sedgwick County Fire Department is giving firefighters more time with their families.
The county switched from a 24-hour shift and 48 hours off to a 48-hour shift and 96 hours off rotation.
Firefighters at Station 32 tell me that with the schedule change, there's more time to recover and feel ready to come to work, thanks to more consistent nights of sleep.
A couple of months ago, the fire department surveyed its team and found 92 percent of firefighters favored the new schedule.
Captain Don Boone for Sedgwick County Fire District 1 has worked under the old schedule for over 20 years.
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'So you really didn't realize it until we changed to this new schedule. And now it's like after those four days, that first day, I'm ready to go. It kind of refreshes you,' Boone said.
Firefighters are at home more mornings since they're at the station two days in a row and get four days off.
'We're seeing right now that overall, a lot of benefits of it. Our personnel are liking it. They get to not commute as much and travel in and out of the station,' Williams said.
That's what Boone says he experiences in his day-to-day life.
'With this new schedule, you end up with two days in the in between where you're actually you get to wake up with your family and spend mornings at home with your family. So it's been really beneficial in that way,' Boone said.
Leadership says this schedule change does require flexibility in their daily work schedule to not affect response time.
'We've realized when we went to the schedule that we had to be real cognizant to be better at rotating our crews out so that they weren't on long-duration scenes without being switched out,' Williams said.
A small price to pay for Boone.
Without even the thought of being woken up in the middle of the night. It kind of relaxes you more, and you are able to get better sleep more consecutively at home. That's the big piece of it, you know, because everybody sleeps better at home,' Boone said.
The fire chief says he's seeing a reduction in sick leaves in the short amount of time the schedule change has been in effect, as well as an improvement in morale.
He also says it's all being done without adding to the budget.
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