Firefighter Troy Haire does some light cardio while waiting for calls at Boardman Township’s fire department Wednesday. The department takes on 5,500 calls a year, with 20 of them typically coming on Christmas Day. Staff photo / Brandon Cantwell

BOARDMAN — While many people take advantage of the holidays to enjoy a reprieve from the fatigue and stress of the work week and to spend time with loved ones, some firefighters and first responders remain on standby in case of emergency.

Troy Haire has been with Boardman Township’s fire department for nearly a decade, joining it after he moved to New Middletown from Savannah, Georgia, in 2015. He admitted that they thought they’d come in and have a quiet holiday.

Their Christmas morning was the furthest from it, however.

“Shift changes at 8 (a.m.) and then we work until 8 tomorrow. But starting five minutes later we had a fire alarm and then a possible structure fire just a couple minutes after that,” Haire said. “By 8:15 we had that possible structure fire; it was a stove fire, she left some stuff in her stove and turned it on to cook and forgot that she stored stuff in there.”

Haire said they had a “little bit” of downtime that followed, running eight consecutive calls until 11:40 a.m. that were mostly for gas leaks.

Haire said he expects things to be busy during the holidays for an array of reasons, noting the things that can come up on Christmas morning.

“It’ll probably be a busy holiday; with medical calls, people cooking, accidents, food getting burnt; it’ll probably be kind of a busy day,” Haire said midday Wednesday. “(Some holidays) it’s quiet and then some can be like today, where stuff just goes crazy. We almost always expect a Christmas fire.”

Fire Capt. Shawn Conroy said they welcome people to come and ride with them to show that firefighters do work other than fighting fires.

“We do everything; like right now after being called out, one of our top calls is bats inside of houses — animal rescue, stuff like that,” Conroy said. “We’ve been chasing gas leaks all morning all over Boardman Township that are just out in the air, and we don’t know why.”

Conroy acknowledged the possibility of first responder families being upset that their loved ones aren’t around for Christmas but for people such as himself, who has been in the field for 24 years, it’s something they get used to.

“Usually most of the guys will do Christmas either the day before or the day after,” Conroy said.

Haire and Conroy said they’ve worked Christmas two or three times in a row with the leap year in effect, and they’ve both worked Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Unlike some places that draft who work the holidays based on seniority, Conroy said for them working falls where it does based on their shift, with no exceptions.

“You have A, B and C, we work 24 (hours) on, 48 off. So we’re B shift so we’ll be back, I think New Year’s Eve is when we work again,” Conroy said.

Haire said the chance to improve someone’s day when it could be the worst one of their life makes working the holidays worth it.

“It’s nice to be able to show up with a calm demeanor and show them kindness; spread some light, you know for a holiday and they’re calling 911,” Haire said. “Wish them a Merry Christmas and hopefully help and give them some peace of mind.”

“Trying to have some wisdom about what they’re calling for and having a caring attitude — and we’re pretty good at that at Boardman,” he added.