Omaha Professional Fire Fighters Association, IAFF L385

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Omaha Professional Fire Fighters Association, IAFF L385

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Omaha Professional Fire Fighters, IAFF L385 is committed to providing excellence in safety for the citizens of Omaha and the fire fighters we represent.

Omaha Professional Fire Fighters, IAFF L385 is the organization that represents the Omaha Fire Fighters for safety, wages, benefits and working conditions. The association is also a proud member of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

10/28/2026

We gave you all a glimpse into the back-and-forth between A and C Shift at Station 5 a few days ago in what has to be the friendliest version of pranking we’ve seen - leaving the dining table set for the oncoming shift.

Over several days, the table setting got fancier and fancier, until A Shift arrived this morning to find an immaculate table with renaissance printed photos of each A Shifter.

We had a question after our last post about pranks - are they common in the fire station? The short answer is “Yes,” but there are rules - we don’t mess with gear or anything that impacts our readiness, nothing gets broken or damaged, and if you’re pranking someone, it’d better be funny to everyone and not just messing with one person. Mission accomplished here!

Nice job, C Shift Nighthawks!

Stay safe, Omaha, and rest assured our noble Nighthawks are always polite and ready to respond!

10/27/2026

Hey Omaha! Want to watch a Nebraska football game at our union hall? Want to help our nonprofit where 100% of proceeds go directly towards our Omaha Professional Fire Fighters right here in Omaha that are battling cancer? Well, you can do both – come have a great time AND help support Omaha fire fighters with cancer!

First, we are down to the LAST few tickets for our golf cart raffle – there are some pictures and a video posted here – but this is an off-road golf cart that retails for more than $13k with undercarriage lights, an infotainment system, off-road tiers, etc. Raffle tickets for it are only $100, and we’re only selling 150 of them – 100% of proceeds goes towards helping fire fighters with cancer! You can buy tickets here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/golf-cart-raffle-5

“But, how will I know the drawing is fair?”

NOW you’re thinking like a fire fighter!! We’re drawing for the golf cart LIVE at a Husker watch party at our hall, and we’re also going to take vide of the entire process so those at home can watch, see their name on a ticket, watch it go into our raffle drum, and watch a ticket be drawn! Want to see it in person? Then come join us for a Husker watch party at our union hall, 6005 Grover St., on Friday, Nov. 6, as Nebraska plays Illinois!! Doors open at 6 p.m., kick off is at 7 p.m.! We’ll have food, drinks for sale, raffle prizes, football squares, a 50/50 raffle (if a $100 ticket is a bit too pricey, or if you have no need for a golf cart!), with all proceeds benefitting our members with cancer! Pizza and popcorn is free for the game, and we’ve got 2 massive projector screens and plenty of seating at this family-friendly event!

So there you go – grab a raffle ticket for a golf cart, or come watch a Husker football game with us (and see the winner of the golf cart drawn live!!), and you’ll be making a difference in the lives of our members that are fighting cancer…both currently and into the future!

Stay safe, Omaha, and stay dry on this rainy Tuesday!

10/26/2026

Subtle signs that you get along with the other shift: Arriving in the morning to the dining table set with the only matching dishes and cutlery in the station (maybe the city) set up specifically for your shift. Especially when said station is one that’s busy enough where having both the engine and medic eat at the same time is unusual!

“Do you usually set the table?”

No. Almost never. Typically our members grab a plate off a stack of mismatched dinner plates, grab a fork from the drawer, scoop food onto their plate directly from the vessel it is cooked in, and eat it at a speed similar to a stray dog. Ask any of our family members that live with one of us how quickly we eat - they will confirm.

Nice job, Nighthawks!

Stay safe, Omaha! A Shift has you today!

10/24/2026

“In a car accident, how fast can you get somebody out of a bad wreck?”

Ahhh….a difficult answer, because every situation is different, cars are all different, and often this depends on the stability of the patient. A bad wreck where the patient needs medical assistance fast? We’ll typically try to get them extricated quickly, but safely, or send a medic into the car to start providing basic aid (obtaining vitals, starting an IV, pushing medication) while we start our extrication procedures. We practice this process as much as we can, because vehicle accidents rarely happen under ideal circumstances, and when you’re trying to utilize the extrication tools at night in the dark in the middle of snow or rain, then you’d better train until it becomes second nature!

Really, the safest way to remove a patient isn’t to get them out through the wrecked car, but to remove the wrecked car from around THEM until you have safe access to remove them without further injuring them, taking extreme care to keep their neck/back stable and in-line.

In these photos, Rescue 60 B Shift spent some time working with hydraulic tools, cribbing (the wooden blocks a vehicle can rest on), air bags (which can help lift a vehicle), and other tools that we use for car accidents to help stabilize and access a vehicle involved in a wreck so that we can get to the patient safely and get them to a higher level of care quickly and efficiently!! You can see the amount of access we’re able to gain to the patient can be as much as we need – removing doors, removing the windshield, and even removing the roof of the vehicle if necessary – while being very careful to ensure we’re not cutting through air bag inflators (which seem to be EVERYWHERE on modern cars now!).

Bottom line, though, is that our members are always training – even on items that we’re familiar with – so that when your emergency happens, we’re ready for it.

Stay safe, Omaha!

10/23/2026

While we use our social media accounts here most often to share a bit of “behind the scenes” aspects of being an Omaha Professional Fire Fighter, we’re going to take a bit of a “time out” here to share some recognition one of our members received the other day.

Matt Carmichael is a former teacher, and track/cross-country coach, that became a fire fighter, and eventually an officer in our union. While he was an excellent fire fighter, promoting to the rank of Battalion Chief, it was his work as a union officer where he really earned the respect of our men and women. He helped start our healthcare trust – researching and implementing (with a solid team of others) how to take charge of our own healthcare benefits and work to keep our premiums low while providing the best benefits for our members. He served as a union officer for a decade, sharing his knowledge and expertise with both our members, and locals all around the country. He was dedicated to our union and its members – at one point turning down a promotion to Assistant Chief (which paid far more than his BC wage) because it would mean he’d have to become a part of fire administration, and thus be forced to leave the union.

In short, he loved his job, he loved serving this city and its citizens, and he loved advocating for our union and its members. It was for this reason, our membership voted unanimously to bestow upon him the title of “Secretary Emeritus” at this month’s meeting. He was presented with a framed picture of the resolution, as well as a beautiful IAFF bell (we’ve had a post on this in the past – for fire fighters, much of our profession’s history, and the work of our men and women, has been directed by a bell).

Congratulations on the award, Matt, and for those of you that have read this far and indulged in us an opportunity to recognize a person that has dedicated his entire life to the service of others, thank you!

Stay safe, Omaha, and know that there are 670-plus members that have learned from leaders in our profession, such as Matt, that are dedicated to serving you with the same compassion and caring attitude that make this city great!

10/22/2026

“Hey, how often do you have code saves?”

This is one of those questions that really depends, like when someone asks how often we have fires: sometimes three in a day, and sometimes 3 in a month! For code saves, though, they typically aren’t an extremely common occurrence…many times people aren’t around when someone’s heart stops, or it isn’t recognized quickly, or bystander CPR isn’t performed quickly or sufficiently (LEARN CPR!! IT CAN SAVE A LIFE!). Typically, despite our best efforts and preparation, a lot of conditions need to be in place for a code save to take place.

So, when two crews working together manage to get two code saves in the span of 3 weeks, it’s definitely out of the ordinary and makes our crews feel good! Engine 43 and Medic 42 on A Shift did just that, getting a pulse back on two patients on two separate calls, 3 weeks apart, allowing the patients to not just survive, but be released and return to a normal life.

Does this occur just because our crews are solid? Absolutely not! This starts with our phenomenal dispatchers – who process a hectic 911 call and start providing CPR instructions for bystanders on scene. Our crews then arrive and take over, continuing CPR, starting an IV, reading the heart rhythm of the patient, defibrillating if appropriate, and starting an IV or IO and delivering life-saving drugs. Then, it carries over to our hospital teams, who receive a “heads up” on the radio that we’re bringing in a serious call and are waiting for us as soon as the stretcher gets through the door, taking over in a controlled clinical environment and giving that patient the best chance of a positive outcome.

Omaha is a special place – one where multiple people, in multiple agencies and positions, work flawlessly together in high-stress situations with the sole purpose of helping YOU!

Stay safe, Omaha! We’re here for you if you need us!

10/21/2026

We posted last week about our station bathrooms and joked that fire fighters, by our nature, are utilitarian creatures. When our members have a need for something at our stations, we will find a solution to the problem, typically by building something simple to meet that need.

This is one example of that utilitarian nature that has been in our fire stations across the city for DECADES, going back far through any of our careers: a gear holder. When a fire call comes in, whether it’s the middle of the night or as soon as our shift starts, we need to get out to the bay, put on our gear, and have wheels rolling to your emergency within 60 seconds (typically faster). If our gear is in a pile on the floor, though, it’s tough to “gear up” by sifting through the gear on the floor. The solution? A gear holder, welded into a square extending up into the air on a base of either an old vehicle hub or a 5-gallon bucket filled with concrete.

Is it pretty? Not at all. Does it work? Absolutely. It allows our members to step into their boots, pull their turnout pants up, and throw on their hood and coat without having to bend down and pick up each piece of gear off the floor (and, after a few calls when we’re sweating, it helps the gear dry out a bit in-between calls!). It may only save us 10 seconds or so, but when you’re in an emergency, those 10 seconds can feel like a lifetime, and if a bit of ingenuity and welding can save that time for us to reach you, it’s absolutely worth it!

Stay safe, Omaha, and know that our members are always trying to find our own shortcuts to help get to you faster to keep you safe!!

10/20/2026

Good morning, Omaha! Several of our members are in Kansas City today, wrapping up a conference with professional IAFF fire fighters across Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, learning from experts in our union, and from each other, about how to make a dangerous job safer!

Like all of our union conferences, these start the same way - Honor Guard, bagpipes, posting the colors, and a singing of the national anthem. For this conference, the national anthem was entrusted to our local’s own Dani Landholm, who knocked it out of the park, as usual!

Stay safe, Omaha!! B Shift has you today!

10/19/2026

Our favorite posts to make – code save!! This time, the phenomenal crews from Truck 78 and Medic 78 on B Shift were recognized for recently saving a 53-year-old man that collapsed while working in a restaurant!

Upon our crews’ arrival, they checked for a pulse, and finding none, immediately started CPR and interventions. They defibrillated the patient, and eventually got return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC – in layman’s terms, they got a pulse back) on scene. A 12-lead revealed a possible STEMI (layman’s terms: heart attack), so crews stabilized the patient, radioed ahead to the hospital to give their cardiology team time to assemble and prepare the cath lab. By the time they arrived at the hospital, the team took over immediately, the patient received an emergency stent placement, was able to recover with the phenomenal assistance of the hospital staff, and was released neurologically intact and able to return to his normal life.

As you know if you’ve followed us for a while, these successful outcomes are not the sole result of our crews – it’s a complete team effort with our phenomenal dispatchers, hospital teams, bystanders, and countless others that come together when you need it. Without the unbelievably talented people in our community that work together, we would not be able to give these individuals hopefully MANY more birthdays, holidays, and time to celebrate with their family, friends, and loved ones.

Kudos to everyone involved! Stay safe, Omaha! C Shift has you today!

10/17/2026

It may be game day across Nebraska, but at fire stations around Omaha, its floor washing day for our members! Chores rotate by day station to station, but Saturday is universally floor day, where we clean and wash the bay floor! The music each station listens to while washing the bay does vary, though!

Address

6005 Grover Street
Omaha, NE
68106

Telephone

(402) 551-5770

Website

http://www.local385.com/

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