48/96 Firefighter Schedule: Calendar Calculator & Complete Guide
Set the first day of any 48-hour tour below and see your platoon's entire year — every duty day, every 4-day break, exportable straight into your phone's calendar.
How the 48/96 schedule works
The 48/96 — "two on, four off" — is one of the two dominant schedules in the American fire service. Each platoon works two consecutive 24-hour tours, then stands down for four full days:
| Days 1–2 | Days 3–6 |
|---|---|
| On duty ✕2 (24-hour tours) | Off ✕4 |
Three platoons — the classic A/B/C shifts — run the same 6-day loop offset by two days each, so one platoon is always on. Departments across California, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado have moved to the 48/96 over the last two decades, usually by firefighter vote, and mostly replacing Kelly-style split rotations.
48/96 by the numbers
- Cycle length: 6 days — two 24-hour tours, then 96 hours off
- Hours: 48 per cycle, an average of 56 per week
- Tours per year: ~121–122 (≈2,920 duty hours)
- Consecutive time off: 4 full days, every single cycle
- Platoons: 3 (A, B, C), offset by two days
Why departments switch to it — and why some switch back
The case for the 48/96 is the off-side: one commute per tour block and a genuine 4-day reset every week, which matters enormously in departments where firefighters live an hour or more from their station. Family logistics simplify (you are either fully at work or fully home), and the pattern never varies.
The case against is the on-side: hour 40 of a busy 48 is nobody's finest hour. Fatigue on the second day is the recurring theme in crew feedback and the reason high-call-volume urban houses sometimes prefer spreading tours out. If that is your department's philosophy you are probably on a Kelly schedule — same 56-hour average, opposite shape.
Pros and cons crews actually report
What people love
- Four consecutive days off, every cycle — real recovery, real side businesses, real family time.
- Half the commutes of a split schedule; huge for rural and long-distance responders.
- Dead-simple rhythm: two days at the station, four at home, forever.
What people struggle with
- The back half of a busy 48 is physically and cognitively brutal.
- Sleep debt from a rough tour block can eat the first day off.
- Trading a 48-hour block is a bigger ask than trading a single 24.
Using the calculator for your platoon
Pick the first day of any 48-hour tour you remember working and the whole year unrolls — tap any date to answer "am I on shift?" before you commit to anything. Export the .ics and your phone answers for you. One note on pay: because tours are 24 hours and fire payroll runs on 7(k) work periods, the pay estimator deliberately flags its weekly overtime as unreliable for this pattern — use it for gross hours, not OT.
Frequently asked questions
What is a 48/96 shift schedule?
A firefighter rotation where you work 48 hours straight (two back-to-back 24-hour shifts at the station), then get 96 hours — four full days — off. The 6-day cycle repeats year-round with three platoons (A, B, C shifts) covering the calendar.
How many shifts a year is a 48/96?
A year holds about 60–61 complete 6-day cycles, so roughly 121–122 twenty-four-hour tours — about 2,920 duty hours. Your exact dates depend on where your platoon sits in the cycle, which the calculator above maps from any one remembered shift.
Is 48/96 better than a Kelly schedule?
Same average hours (56 per week), different shape. The 48/96 concentrates work into one hard 48-hour block and pays you back with four consecutive days off — great for commuters and side work. The Kelly spreads the three tours out (work-off-work-off-work, then 4 off), which is gentler per tour but chops the week up. Departments and studies are genuinely split; it usually comes down to commute distance and call volume.
Do firefighters sleep during a 48-hour shift?
They can — stations have bunks, and quiet nights allow real sleep between calls. But sleep is unprotected: on a busy house the second 24 hours of a 48 can run on very little rest, which is the main criticism of the pattern and why some high-call-volume departments avoid it.
How does overtime work on a 48/96?
Fire departments typically use the FLSA 7(k) exemption: overtime is calculated over a longer work period (often 24 hours ÷ 27 days or similar) rather than a 40-hour week. That is department-specific contract territory — a simple weekly-overtime model does not apply, so treat any generic pay math as a floor and check your CBA.