It looks like one major reason they do shifts that way is because federal law allows up to 53 hours without overtime per week, specific to firefighters and possibly other government staff. The 24 hour schedule apparently gets station managers the most out of this arrangement.
Outside of that.. there really doesn't seem to be any sense in it at all. Kelly days. Rotations. No ability to scale to peak and off peak times. Allowing sleeping on shift. It just looks antiquated for no good reason.
It looks like one major reason they do shifts that way is because federal law allows up to 53 hours without overtime per week, specific to firefighters and possibly other government staff. The 24 hour schedule apparently gets station managers the most out of this arrangement.
Outside of that.. there really doesn't seem to be any sense in it at all. Kelly days. Rotations. No ability to scale to peak and off peak times. Allowing sleeping on shift. It just looks antiquated for no good reason.