A Nacogdoches Firefighter’s Christmas

By Trent Jacobs in The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel
On Saturday morning, the 15 men of B-shift, or as they call themselves, “the greatest shift in the Nacogdoches Fire Department,” will be resting their heads for the first time since Christmas morning. And yesterday, while families across Nacogdoches were opening their presents, watching football games and sleeping soundly, they kept watch.

But sometime around dusk the men took a break from their stations and met up inside the kitchen of downtown station #5, where they joined together for their own Christmas dinner. It wasn’t your typical Christmas dinner in that there was no turkey, no baked ham or even any kind of pie in sight.

Rather, this was indeed a true firefighter’s Christmas dinner with all the trimmings included, like one-inch thick brown steaks, iceberg lettuce covered in ranch dressing and piping hot baked potatoes served with cheese, sour cream and the all-important brown tub of butter spread.

The men talked about the presents they got their wives, the presents they got their dogs and dared each other to eat as much steak gristle as possible. For some it was yet another Christmas spent working inside the station and for others, like Probationary Firefighter Matthew Canterbury, who has only been with NFD for four months, it was the first Christmas spent with a different kind of family unit.

“This has been my first Christmas to work anywhere for any job that I’ve ever had, but it hasn’t been too hard for me, to be honest,” Canterbury said. “Yeah, I’d love to be at home with my wife and my daughter, but at the same time, these guys have treated me like I’m part of their family, even though I haven’t known them that long.”

The B-shift started at 7 a.m. on Christmas morning and didn’t get off until 7 a.m. the next day, so many of the firefighters celebrated their Christmas a little early, like eight-year veteran Captain Jason Tobias, whose daughter understands that for children who have parents that work jobs like his, Santa Claus sometimes comes a day early.

“You know when they’re little you can get away with telling them Christmas is going to come a day early or even a day later,” Tobias said.

So while there are many who have to work on Christmas day, the firefighters of NFD get to spend it together and the smiles on their faces during their steak dinner indicated that they really don’t mind it too much at all.

“We are a family. Really,” Tobias said. “We horse around a lot and do a lot of the same things you would see at any Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, but when it comes down to it, all of us are here for each other. Like our shift today, we’re all here. You don’t have anyone calling in sick like you may see in other places because we take a lot of pride in what we do and we’re all proud to be here.”

The men said that it’s times like the holidays when they also realize how much support they get from the community they serve. People have brought in cookies and even a platter of homemade stuffing for the men to enjoy this year.

And though the fellowship they enjoyed seemed like it could have lasted well into the night, within 45 minutes of sitting down to eat and talk shop, the men were already dispersing back to their home stations to wait for the inevitable emergency calls that would come later on in that crisp Christmas evening.

“We’re a trade of the moment,” Tobias said. “So we’re sitting here now pretty relaxed and happy, but in 30 seconds the situation could be very different and we’d be out the door.”