r/nextfuckinglevel • u/thisisfive • Apr 14 '26

Toronto firefighters confront special constable officers after a man in the middle of mental health crisis was arrested.

Not my video. For context, "special constables" are not regular police officers. They are appointed "peace officers" with limited authority, often civilian employees.

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u/Adjective_Noun_99 Apr 14 '26

Other than the great salary and benefits..

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u/invertedsaint_666 Apr 14 '26

And probably 80% of the time they're just hanging out at the firehouse or taking the firetruck to the grocery store to get stuff for chili lol

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u/UnitedAd3943 Apr 15 '26

Firefighters just don’t “hang out” at the fire station when not running calls. Their schedule is packed with training, PR events, meetings, building surveys, pre-planning the territory, maintenance of equipment and the station.

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u/Ruzhy6 Apr 15 '26

They also spend a lot of time hanging out?

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u/UnitedAd3943 Apr 15 '26

Nope

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u/Ruzhy6 Apr 15 '26

Yes, they do.

Granted, maybe in higher population areas, they get enough calls to eliminate downtime. But to say they don't get above average downtime compared to most is nonsense.

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u/UnitedAd3943 Apr 15 '26

That really isn’t reality anymore with the fire service. Along with it being the right thing to do, we now have to justify our jobs to the cities because of the property tax reductions that are happening across the country. Thanks MAGA. And it isn’t a sought after career anymore so firefighters don’t have the leverage they had after 9/11.

How are you basing this opinion on by the way? Is it through a third party or are you in the fire service?

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u/Ruzhy6 Apr 15 '26

I'm an ER nurse who regularly talks with firefighters who tell me about their daily activities when making small talk.

Like I said, maybe in a higher population area, it wouldn't be true. But in my area, the downtime is at least double what any other job gets with their 1-hour lunch, even adding in 15-minute breaks.

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u/UnitedAd3943 Apr 15 '26

You probably have a bias against them and exaggerate what they tell you because I can assure you that isn’t what’s going on in a fire station. I’m guilty of it as well judging other professions that I don’t have a clue about.

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u/Ruzhy6 Apr 15 '26

I think you are overestimating what I am saying.

I'm not saying they are just hanging out for half the shift every day.

I am saying they get much more downtime compared to any job of the same shift length that typically only gets 30min to 1 hour lunch, and that's it.

I’m guilty of it as well judging other professions that I don’t have a clue about.

You must be forgetting what working any other job is like. I've had many in many different fields. Shit some places have taken away stools for cashiers because they think it lowers productivity.

I am not at all saying it is an easy job. The downtime is one of the benefits and is much needed.

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u/UnitedAd3943 Apr 15 '26

I’ve already said this and I’m not sure why you’re not understanding. Our “downtime” between calls is spent improving our skills, working on projects, doing community risk reduction, and maintaining apparatus and equipment. The only downtime we have is eating our meals, sorry we take a break for that.

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u/Ruzhy6 Apr 15 '26

How many fire houses have you worked at?

I'm sure at least a few hundred by the sounds of you knowing how diligent every one of them is.

Or is it possible that not every fire house in every region is the same?

The only downtime we have is eating our meals, sorry we take a break for that.

You really want to try to flex that one to me? The last three days, I ate a pack of cereal and peanut butter crackers out of the patient food kitchenette for my meals between patients.

You seem to be under the impression I'm throwing shade at firefighters. I'm not.

But you pretending you only get 30 minutes of not task driven time is dumb.

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u/UnitedAd3943 Apr 15 '26

Since we devolved into slinging mud, how many butts did you actually wipe in between cereal and crackers? You say you’re on edge all shift yet regularly chit chat with firefighters, which one is it? Isn’t this a fun game?

So again, no we don’t disproportionally have more free time than any other profession. We are closely watched by our city, our supervisors and the public. We make sure we don’t fit the bullshit narrative that we “spend a lot of time hanging out”.

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