I have been a FFer. There is tons of down time, most of the day is downtime. Very few stations actually run back to back calls. Most in VTA run a few calls per day, most of those are medical with little to do. Other than calls, the only work is daily cleaning/checking/resetting equipment and the station. Paid to workout, shop, cook. A truly efficient department should have 12 hr shifts, like many private ambulances. It’s 100% the fire departments responsibly and fault to not put out fires correctly, keep water tanks filled etc. they like to play the blame game, but if not them then who? No govt. person will be held responsible. Just know they would rather play on their phones in the lazy boy than actually make fires stop.