No holiday break for Santa Fe Fire Department
Dec. 26—Scott Ouderkirk was standing by on Canyon Road, halfway through the Farolito Walk on Christmas Eve, when a car crash on Interstate 25 jolted him out of the cold and into his SUV.
It's a time when most people find themselves at home with family. But for Ouderkirk and others working the Santa Fe Fire Department's B shift, the glow of farolitos and flashing emergency lights can often blend into one. It's not the ideal way to spend a holiday, but it's the way they've come to know.
The rest of the community can take a day or two off and get away from the pressures of the world. That's not true for first responders, both those who worked Christmas Eve and those who took the baton on Christmas Day.
"It's the nature of the beast; we get used to it after being here year after year," said Santa Fe Fire Capt. Jeremy Ramirez. "Your family gets used to not always having a birthday on their birthday, not always having Christmas on Christmas."
When he told his 9-year-old son about his holiday work schedule, Ramirez said the boy simply turned their block calendar back one day. For the Ramirez family, Christmas will come Monday, Dec. 26.
"He was sweet," the captain said.
Ouderkirk, who has been with the fire department for 15 years, also missed out on holiday traditions during his shift on Christmas Eve. If he hadn't been at work Saturday night, the battalion chief said he would have been eating pizza and drinking reindeer root beer with his immediate and extended family.
He added his wife's side of the family often goes caroling around the neighborhood afterward.
"I miss a lot of that stuff. I don't mind missing caroling, but ... missing football with my boys and the pizza and all that stuff, it's kind of a bummer," Ouderkirk said. "But I'll see the photos."
The work is always in focus. And on a holiday weekend, there's little rhyme or reason to its pace. Some shifts are relatively calm. But on Christmas Day, fire department officials said their day was busy: falls, diabetic emergencies, cardiac arrest, plus fire calls that ranged from false alarms to burned toast. Responders also were able to cut a ring from the finger of a teenage girl who was in pain.
The smattering of calm and calamitous collided as Christmas Eve moved toward Christmas Day.
After the callout on I-25 late Saturday night, firefighters and paramedics were already on scene as Ouderkirk pulled up to a silver car mashed into a side rail on I-25's northbound lane. Another car with damage on the driver's side was stopped a few feet ahead.
Paramedics helped the silver car's driver into an ambulance as firefighters poured absorbent powder onto oil leaking from her devastated vehicle. The woman's husband, who drove to the scene to make sure his wife was OK, walked along the highway to talk with the first responders.
Ouderkirk used his Spanish — which he learned after spending two years in Mexico on a mission for his church — to tell the man he did not need to stay with the car and could go be with his wife at the hospital.
The husband said he and his wife were going to eat tamales at home, before their plans were dashed by a necessary hospital visit.
Ouderkirk later responded to a minor crash involving a distracted driver and a parked car, flooded urinals at Fire Station No. 4 and a man who said he was overdosing on fentanyl next to a Speedway gas station on St. Francis Drive.
Dominic Gallegos, a paramedic who responded to the minor crash, said he has worked at least a half-dozen Christmases in his 24 years with the fire department. He was used to the rhythms: Gallegos' father worked for the fire department when he was younger.
"Somehow, it always worked out," Gallegos said of the times his dad had to work the holiday. "I didn't really think much of it."
The longtime paramedic said he has about three more Christmases with the department in him before he steps away from the job. You'd expect someone with his level of experience to have a plethora of holiday horror stories, but the soft-spoken Gallegos said he tries not to keep track of those kinds of things.
"I've always been able to just, kind of, live in the moment. I don't really try linger with things that happened before or try to harp on the bad," Gallegos said. "I try to think of the good things and focus on those."
Personnel with decades of experience in the department were far from the only ones tasked with working Christmas Eve or Christmas day this year. Zant Zamora, 24, has been a firefighter in Santa Fe for just four months. He was tasked with carrying a medical bag through throngs of people on Canyon Road as he and his colleagues walked the area, checking for people who may have needed help.
Zamora said he didn't mind.
"It's part of the job. I mean, we have to do it every now and then," Zamora said. "Gotta take them as they come."
Between responding to calls and overseeing the festivities on Canyon Road, firefighters and paramedics sat in their respective stations, catching snippets of NFL games and eating food donated by a series of Santa Fe restaurants.
Ouderkirk and Battalion Chief Freddie Martinez spent hours Saturday afternoon picking up prepared meals from restaurants like Tortilla Flats, Atrisco Cafe & Bar and Boxcar, taking pictures with restaurant staff and thanking the establishments for their generosity.
Martinez said firefighters at each station typically will pitch in about $25 for someone to go grocery shopping and buy enough food for the entirety of their 48-hour shifts. However, given how difficult it is to shop during the holidays, the battalion chief said he is very grateful to restaurants that ensure his staff are well fed.
"It's insane to shop right now," Martinez said. "[Local businesses], they'll reach out and say 'What can we do for you guys for the holidays? What can we get you guys?' ... We really appreciate them [and] really want people to know these are the restaurants giving back to the community."
Leftovers sat on the counter at Station No. 3 when B shift was finally relieved of duty at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday. The incoming group on C shift shared stories with their compatriots about the days off, holiday plans and well wishes. At Station No. 1, the scene was much the same, with paramedic Isaiah Gonzales sitting with Ramirez and the rest of his Christmas crew, sharing similar thoughts.
Gonzales — who is set to become a lieutenant in the department next year — said he has responded to traumatic situations during Christmas in the past, times when a joyous occasion is soured by the need for first responders. However, he also remembered a call about six years ago around the holidays when he helped resuscitate a woman who had gone into cardiac arrest.
The woman made a nearly full recovery, which Gonzales said is somewhat rare. She brought cookies to his fire station during the holiday season for the next few years to thank the department for saving her life.
"It was really cool ... to actually see, you know, us make a difference in someone's life, in a family's life," Gonzales said. "That was a cool, good Christmas experience versus a lot of the other bleak situations that we have."
