It's probably easiest to actually look at the guidance on H1N1, the vaccine sequencing. It's a little hard to find on the Internet now. It's been removed, but if you read the definition of “health care workers” it actually says:
All health care workers (HCW) involved with pandemic response or delivery of essential health services:
-Those who provide direct patient care as well as those who support the provision of health care services
- Includes full-time staff, part-time staff, students, regular visitors and volunteers, i.e., all persons carrying out the health care function
That definition, as far as I'm concerned, covers firefighters. However, inclusion of firefighters separately in the guideline is what caused the problem.