Sacramento firefighters spend Thanksgiving with their second families
SACRAMENTO - Fire departments all over Sacramento are keeping an ear to the scanner in case of emergencies on Thanksgiving, but are also spending time with their second families at the firehouse.
Station 2 in Downtown Sacramento is like many firehouses in the area and around the state who can't get a full day at home with their family, so they end up with their fire family instead.
At the Sac Metro Fire Division in Fair Oaks, they're prepping Thanksgiving dinner.
"If I couldn't be with my regular family, my real family, this would be my next choice, my fire family, for sure," said Eric Alekman.
Down at the Sacramento Fire Department Station 2, it was a bit of Greek lunch while the turkey was prepared.
"We get different types of calls," Justin Sylvia said. "We get people in their kitchen cooking, they might not have cleaned out their oven in some time. So we sometimes get oven fires and a bit of an uptick in fire calls."
Sac Metro Fire Chief Adam House is embracing a holiday working.
"I get to put on turnouts today," House said. "Had a commercial fire at an apartment, not too much. It was on a balcony, but got to put gear on today and do what I came in originally doing 34 years ago."
With some calls here and there, the hope is for a quiet day.
"We operate 24/7, 365 days a year, but on Thanksgiving, just like everyone else we're serving, we want to enjoy Thanksgiving as well," Alekman said.
And while it can be tough being on call on Thanksgiving, Alekman knows it comes with the territory.
"We'd love to be home with our families but we understand that this is part of the job, working on holidays," Alekman said. "We don't mind we're happy to do it."
While Sylvia is excited for families to come by the station after dinner.
"This is our second family," Sylvia said. "So we're with our family but we also bring our family into the firehouse to celebrate with us."
