A firefighter in San Francisco has racked up $221,000 in overtime last year, bringing his total paycheck for the year to $363,000, according to SFGate.

Lt. Gary Altenberg of San Francisco Fire Department's Station 39 was able to bring in the hefty salary due to staffing shortages at the department, requiring him to take on extra shifts.

He earned over $50,000 more than his Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White.

But he is not the only one who brought in a massive paycheck for overtime.

Paramedic/firefighter Frederich Binkley at Station 51 also brought in $191,000 in overtime, bringing his total paycheck to $337,204.

Three other battalion chiefs earned over $100,000 in overtime, boosting their pay to over $300,000.

Because of these payouts, the Fire Department has already spent $38 million in overtime budget with over tow months left in the fiscal year, and is asking the Board of Supervisors for permission to spend another $4.1 million.

Three battalion chiefs came next, earning $113,000 to $124,000 apiece in overtime. That boosted their pay to $316,000 to $332,000 each.

Tom O'Conner, president of the San Francisco firefighters union, has called it "insane."

He blamed the hefty overtime payouts on chronic understaffing of 400 vacant spots, making firefighters put in hundreds of overtime a year.

"I don't think it's sustainable," Conner said. "For someone time after time to accumulate more than 2,000 hours of overtime (a year). And as the fire chief, I don't support it from a safety perspective or from a mental health perspective.'

"It's mind-boggling,'' O'Connor continued. "You are getting some real important calls - a lot of cases involving congestive heart failure and elderly patients that tend to show up in the early-morning hours - so you are not getting a lot of sleep.''