A firefighter named Steve in Newport News, Virginia, wonders why in his line of work, and for some police, certain additional kinds of days off after long unbroken shifts are called Kelly days, Kelly shifts, or Kelly time. The term most likely comes...
Visiting firemen doesn’t necessarily refer to firefighters. The terms visiting fireman and visiting firemen may refer to any of several types of visitors from out of town, including non-firefighting celebrities, tourists, and rowdy conventioneers...
As we’ve previously discussed, firefighters don and doff their equipment, terms deriving from do on and do off. They are also said to dout a fire, meaning they “extinguish” it, dout being a similar shortening of do out. This is...
