Firefighters welcome slow Christmas Day

Firefighter Kevin Bagby removes a fresh casserole from the oven as he helps prepares a Christmas Day breakfast Tuesday at the Jefferson City Fire Department Station 3.
Firefighter Kevin Bagby removes a fresh casserole from the oven as he helps prepares a Christmas Day breakfast Tuesday at the Jefferson City Fire Department Station 3.

Christmas morning was quiet at Jefferson City Fire Department station 3 on Rock Hill Road, but it gave the firefighters on duty more of a chance to spend time in the company of their professional family.

There were five firefighters on duty at a time Tuesday at the station - part of 19 suppression personnel and one assistant chief scheduled to work the holiday in Jefferson City, JCFD Captain Joe Alonzo said.

The 24 and a quarter-hour shift at station 3 started at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, and ended at 6:45 a.m. today - with 15 minutes of overlap with the incoming shift.

"It feels like I've worked a lot of Christmases," Alonzo said Tuesday, later recalling that in the past 15 years, he's probably worked nine or ten Christmas eves or days.

"That's the way it goes," he said, adding he wouldn't trade his 22-year career so far for anything, though.

Jon Pagel said he's worked most Christmases over his past four and a half years on the job so he and his wife - who is a nurse and had to work Tuesday anyway, and the two of them don't yet have children - can go out to celebrate for New Year's.

Bryan Boeckmann said older firefighters tend to work Christmas so younger firefighters can be home with their families and young children; he had filled in at another station Tuesday morning.

Adam Sneller - who left after Boeckmann arrived - said he's worked both Christmases in his two years, but he and his wife would be going to his parents to celebrate later.

Sneller drove Engine 3 with Alonzo and Pagel to get fuel for the truck - and coffee filters for the station - at the municipal facilities on Hyde Park Road, where the fire department's training facility is also located.

There was little traffic on the roads, and Alonzo said that in his experience, unless there's a bad fire, not much usually happens on Christmas Day - though he said drivers can make the mistake of letting their guard down when there's not as much other traffic.

A medical call came over the station's communication system at about 8:20 a.m., but it did not require the response of station 3's engine or ladder trucks.

No responses were required over the next few hours, so Alonzo, Kevin Bagby, Dale Duemmel, Pagel and Sneller enjoyed a breakfast of hashbrowns, sausage, bacon and cheese casserole with scrambled eggs on the side, and Boeckmann later opened his Christmas gift - the last wrapped present under the Christmas tree in the TV room.

"The spouses take the brunt of the stress" of firefighters being on duty on a day like Christmas, Alonzo said, adding firefighters can expect to have to work a Christmas after about four years.

However, Bagby said shifts usually find a restaurant where firefighters, their spouses and children can all get together around the holidays, and station 3's was at J. Pfenny's.

Alonzo said firefighters' families often make or order food to bring to the station, too. "Even the days we're away, we're still kind of a little bit together," he said.

Community members also bring in a lot of food and treats to the station throughout the year, which Alonzo said helps make long days away from home more bearable for firefighters on duty.

"We appreciate it very much," he said of a barbecue over the summer, meals from churches around Thanksgiving, fried chicken, popcorn, cookies.

Alonzo added that rare days like Tuesday when there's down time make good days to check for maintenance and equipment issues. "You look for projects, keep yourself active, busy," he said.