r/Firefighting • u/TigerBack56 • 7d ago

General Discussion Whats your departments dumbest/strangest policy?

So i come from a military background and I know how stupid some policies can be. Our department has a few i can think of but I wanted to here from the community, what is your departments dumbest/strangest legitimate policy?

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u/Unwitnessed 7d ago

Not enough radios for every interior firefighter. Not really a policy, but pretty idiotic.

3

u/KGBspy Career FF/Lt and adult babysitter. 7d ago

We just got issued our own a little more than a year ago otherwise it was 1 at each ride position, of course guys took them accidentally when they’d forget them in their coats. They were shit radio, batteries were crap you’d have to carry 2. Now we got those green ones loaded with frequencies.

1

u/fish1552 FF/EMT who thankfully doesn't have to do medical 6d ago

People don't know the batteries are only good for 5 years FROM THE DATE OF MANUFACTURE. Above the barcode on a Morotola is a 4 digit number, The first two are the year of manufacture, the second is the week of that year it was made. So I have a 2413 I'm looking at so it was made between March 25th and March 31, 2024.

They could sit on a shelf in a warehouse for 2 years before you get them and only be good for 3 more years.

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u/KGBspy Career FF/Lt and adult babysitter. 6d ago

Thx. We went from HT 1000’s to xts 1250’s I think they were and they’d buy knock off batteries from someplace, they were always dying so you’d have to carry extras during the shift. We got the green ones now and they’re new so we get some mileage out of the batteries.

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u/fish1552 FF/EMT who thankfully doesn't have to do medical 6d ago

Ok, those batteries SHOULD be the same type of code. I would make sure to let the person making the purchases know that they need swapped out every 5 years on a life cycle list. Then make up a proposal to only buy 1/5th each year so the oldest get replaced each year. That might help both get it done as well as spread out the payments.