Shenandoah Briere
The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, N.Y.
(MCT)
Dec. 26—The smell of bacon wafted through the air at Schenectady City Fire Station 1 Saturday afternoon.
Just before the strips got too crispy, firefighter James Raucci pulled them off the stove, patted some of the grease off and chopped it up into tiny bits to go in mashed potatoes.
Raucci was the station’s cook for the Christmas Day shift’s feast.
He’s one of the many guys who cooks at the firehouse so, since he was working the holiday, he said he’d step up to the plate and prepare the food for the nine-member crew.
So, at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Raucci started in the produce section at the Altamont Avenue Price Chopper in Rotterdam. He grabbed grapes, asparagus and other items, then moved on to getting some shrimp and cheeses for Saturday afternoon to tide the guys over until dinner.
The cheese board also included sliced meats that Raucci picked up Wednesday from Capri Imports Italian Deli on Broadway.
“I like to stay local and shop in the city when I can,” he said, recalling how his mom used to buy lunch meat from Capri. “The little places in the city aren’t going to last long.”
He also stayed local for the main course, a 21-pound prime roast, which he bought from the Avon Market on Van Vranken for $217.
Normally the shift spends about $20 per person to cover meals for the day. However, they pitch in extra at the holidays to make the meal special since they can’t be home.
“You have to replace some of that holiday magic,” Raucci said.
The holiday shift can be hard, said Deputy Chief Doug Faulisi.
It can be busier too, Fausi said, with more serious medical calls from people who wait too long to call for help. There’s also more responses for mental health calls.
Within five and a half hours on shift, the crew had already responded to five calls.
That was a lull time, said Lt. Stan Wilgocki, who was working his final Christmas shift at the station.
He’s set to retire in March after spending 20 years with the department.
Faulisi said, while he was assigned the Christmas Day shifts, others pick them up so firefighters who have kids are able to spend the day at home. So when the guys are able to sit down to a meal together, it helps take some of the stress off from the day and it brings a little of the Christmas joy into the station.
“We’re a second family,” said Wilgocki.
Wilgocki said his last Christmas shift has been a little bittersweet because there is a lot of comradery among the members of the station.
Firefighter Mike Stanley agreed. He too was working his last Christmas shift before retiring after 22 years.
He said, “there’s mixed emotions.”
For Ed Harasiemowicz III, it will be the first of many holidays he works. Faulisi said it was only Harasiemowicz’s second shift at the station. He just became a firefighter, following in his father’s footsteps, who retired in April 2020.
Although the crew can’t spend the entire day with their families, it’s made easier when some of them stop by the station.
Faulisi’s wife and two daughters stopped by in the morning to wish the crew a “Merry Christmas” and bring them a little gift. Firefighter Mark Karl’s family also stopped by, his kids showing off some of the gifts they got to their dad.
Others, like Wilgocki, video message their families. A smile spread across his face as he chatted with his wife as she visited with his children and his nephew.
“That’s really one of the blessings today,” he said about technology. “In some ways, it makes it easier.”
许多船员的kitchen throughout the afternoon, checking in on the cooking, while also still continuing to do their normal day-to-day duties, be it cleaning or other chores.
Faulisi said meals on holidays or just any day can be hard when they get a call. If someone who is cooking leaves, another member will watch the food. If they all go, they shut everything off. Occasionally that ruins the meal and the department decides just to get pizza instead, he said.
值得庆幸的是这没有发生。在下午5:45,the crew happily sat down and ate the meal, with the members calling it a success.
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