Wholetime firefighters work in teams known as “watches”. Watches are based at eight wholetime stations across the county. There are three different wholetime watch duty systems in Cornwall:
| Duty system | Hours | Shift pattern |
| Day crewed | 07:00-19:00 | Four days on duty, four days rest |
| 24-hour |
07:00-19:00 19:00-07:00 |
Two day shifts followed by two night shifts then four days rest |
| Liskeard duty system | 08:00-18:30 | On duty Tuesday to Friday, rest days Saturday to Monday |
CFRS has eight wholetime stations across the county with the following duty systems.
| Station location | Duty system | Number of watches |
| Penzance | Day crewed | 2 |
| Tolvaddon | 24-hour | 4 |
| Falmouth | 24-hour | 4 |
| Truro | Day crewed | 2 |
| Newquay - standard duty system | Day crewed | 2 |
| Newquay - summer duty system | 24-hour | 4 |
| St Austell | Day crewed | 2 |
| Bodmin | Day crewed | 2 |
| Liskeard | Liskeard duty system | 1 |
As a newly recruited wholetime firefighter your initial posting could be at any one of these stations.