For firefighters on Thanksgiving, it's a group effort

MARSHFIELD – Every Thanksgiving, firefighters from each station in Marshfield gather at the main firehouse, where a large table is covered in  side dishes brought from home.

Usually, the firefighters take turns cooking during their 24-hour shifts, but on the biggest turkey-eating day of the year, everyone pitches in to baste the bird, boil and mash the potatoes, fry the sausage and mix the stuffing.

Capt. Pat Smith said he thinks he's going to be given the job of roasting the turkey this year, even though he says he's not a very good cook.

"It's a group effort," he said. "Although sometimes we do get donations."

Smith and firefighter Eric Morgan said Thanksgiving day in the fire station usually starts with a big breakfast – someone usually brings a breakfast casserole to make cooking easy – so they can skip lunch and go straight to the turkey dinner.

When duty calls on Thanksgiving

The calls firefighters respond to on Thanksgiving are usually medical, Smith said.

"The oven fires are few and far between," he said. "Usually if people keep the door closed, it's fine. Most of the time it's burnt food, not an actual fire."

Smith, who's been working for the department for 11 years, said he hasn't seen a turkey fryer fire yet.

Smith said firefighters take precautions to not burn down the fire station while they're out on calls. Usually there's one person left in the building, so the oven isn't left unattended, but if they all have to leave, everything gets turned off.

Other typical Thanksgiving calls include helping a visitor in a wheelchair enter a house that doesn't have a ramp.

"They're very thankful," Smith said.

Morgan said the main fire station has a recently renovated, open-concept kitchen, which means everybody can pretend to help with the cooking, but really just hang out.

Smith said one of his favorite Thanksgiving sides is the green bean casserole, while Morgan said it's got to be stuffing.

"Cranberry sauce is so important too," Smith said.

Shopping for Thanksgiving dinner

The pair recently navigated the aisles of a grocery store, checking off items on a list prepared by their fellow firefighters: Pepperidge Farm stuffing, Jimmy Dean sausage, Ocean Spray cranberry jelly. Then came everything else, the biggest qualification being price: no-name canned corn, onions, potatoes, celery.

"Everybody makes their specialty or they have a certain recipe," Morgan said.

In Morgan's 20-year career, he's had to work on the holiday an estimated five times.

The union and the town recently came to an agreement that firefighter groups, which take turns on 24-hour shifts, will rotate coverage through the holidays to make sure no one group gets saddled with them all.

Even though they're on duty, if there are no emergency calls, firefighters who live in town can drop by their houses so long as their radios are on, Smith said.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@patriotledger.com.