Aberdeen Firefighters Celebrate Thanksgiving

As some spent the day with family, others had to work this Thanksgiving.

Emergency responders are among those who may not get holidays off. But some Aberdeen crews on the clock still observed Thanksgiving.

"We organize a menu a couple days before. Then we get together and cook it as a group," Aberdeen Fire and Rescue’s Todd Salfrank said.

And they eat it as one too. Ryan Webb isn't sure how many holidays he's had to work his six years on the Aberdeen Fire and Rescue squad. In the past there were times his family was been able to work around his schedule for holiday meals but that didn't happen this time.

"I will be missing out this year. But sometimes that's what happens in this line of work," Webb said.

But he only missed out to a degree as he and other firefighters still filled their plates with homemade holiday food.

It, of course, wasn't quite the same. There was no one around to make them shut off the football game during the meal. And if the alarm sounded, they would have run out the door as the food they worked hard to prepare got cold.

"Just because it's a holiday doesn't mean something's not going to happen. And a lot of times it'll be more often so you just never know," Webb said.

But that's all part of the job they were trained to do. So they know how to handle that task, but they don’t all know how to prepare a Thanksgiving meal yet.

"A few of us do. Some of the new recruits were struggling a little bit this morning trying to cook potatoes and cut them up," Salfrank said.

The firefighters cheated a little with store-bought pies but they made the rest of the food from scratch.