No Thanksgiving Break for Emergency Workers

Dec. 01--In the days before Thanksgiving, I saw several Facebook news-feed posts saying things like, "I'm not shopping Thursday because everyone deserves to be with their families on Thanksgiving!"

But even if every mall in America closed its doors Thanksgiving, everyone still would not have the luxury of dinner with their families.

I spent the holiday with the firefighters at Columbia's Station No. 1, where firefighters work 24-hour shifts, to see what the day was like for them.

The firefighters clocked in at 7 a.m. Thursday and clocked out at 7 a.m. Friday. At the beginning of each shift, the trucks and equipment are inspected.

For me that meant the firemen showing me where ladders and extrication equipment are kept in the trucks, but also putting on a vest and a coat before climbing into Engine 1 and strapping myself in.

When the station received calls, I didn't need to slow everyone down by not knowing what to do.

I was assigned to ride along with the rescue truck, the unit that responds to medical calls or any incident with potential injuries.

They were out on a call when I arrived at the station Thursday morning, but their second call of the day was my first one: a customer had a medical emergency inside Walgreens.

I followed the rescue unit, Jeremy McGee and Dylan Price, to the rescue truck and climbed up into the backseat. McGee drove as Price sounded the siren. It's amazing how quickly you can drive through town when every vehicle on the road stops to let you pass them.

I stood in the store and watched McGee and Price tend to the customer, pending the arrival of an ambulance that would take her to Maury Regional Medical Center. Once the ambulance arrived, McGee and Price stayed there to help the medics until they took the customer to the hospital.

Our next call came about an hour later: a two-car accident on Garden Street with one person involved suffering a minor injury. We arrived at the scene within moments of receiving the call.

McGee and Price began talking to the injured passenger to find out what was wrong as the Columbia Police Department wheeled onto the scene and began directing traffic and gathering information about the accident.

I stood with my back against the rescue truck and watched the whole scene unfold like a well-oiled machine. When an ambulance arrived to take the injured to the hospital, McGee assisted the medics while Price took a crowbar out of the rescue truck and pried sheet metal away from the front tire on one of the cars so the driver could move it out of the road.

"If a car can be driven away from an accident scene, we do what we can to make that happen," Price said. "Once patient care is done, we're here to help any way we can. If a vehicle can drive away, that's less traffic blocking the road."

McGee said an important part of dealing with a car accident is making sure the situation doesn't worsen.

"We check for oil and gas leaks and any other hazards," McGee said. "We check both cars and make sure they're in park. If the damage is really bad, sometimes we cut the battery cables so the airbags don't deploy."

When we arrived back at the station, the other firemen were preparing for the all-important Thanksgiving dinner. On a typical day, they told me, firefighters are constantly training or updating their certifications.

They maintain the fire hydrants in the city, teach school children and Cub Scout troops about fire safety and familiarize themselves with the layout of the businesses in town, should they ever need to fight a fire or perform a rescue in those buildings.

The time between calls was filled with the smells of a Thanksgiving feast wafting out of the kitchen in the fire hall, but not everyone's meal preparation went smoothly. A call came in that a smoke detector had been activated, so the fire crew headed out the door. This was not a medical call, but I was invited to come along.

I heaved myself up into the shiny red engine and someone tossed me a vest before we buckled up and tore down the road. While we were en route, a call came over the radio that there was no fire, someone just burned their food.

We still drove to the address we were called too, though. Two of the firemen went inside the building just to make sure everything was okay.

Just before I left Thursday evening, I joined the firemen for their Thanksgiving dinner. And just in case anyone is wondering, yes, they are excellent cooks. As I filled my plate with smoked turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing and chocolate cream pie, I thought, "This is the strangest Thanksgiving I've ever had."

But emergencies know no holidays. The firefighters, medics and police officers who were not with their families on Thanksgiving sacrificed that day to keep everyone in the community safe. Since I was on call for the newspaper and unable to go home for Thanksgiving, they invited me to share a meal -- and a day -- with them.

And for that, I am thankful.

Copyright 2014 - The Daily Herald, Columbia, Tenn.