Bristol Fire Department | A Day With the C Shift

As many of you know, my husband is a full time career firefighter in Bristol, New Hampshire. He was promoted last year to captain and has been bugging me to take some shift photos for him and his shift partner as a way to commemorate the year (in Bristol each firefighter is with each captain for one year and then they go through shift rotation). When he first came to me with this idea we originally planned for a few simple photos of the guys together, nothing special. As time went on from the time he actually asked me to do it to the time I was finally able to do so, I had something else in mind. Photojournalism is very near and dear to my heart as is understanding my husband. I decided I wanted to document what a day looks like for my husband when he is away.

Anyone who is involved in the world of fire and EMS can understand that it is a special world of it's own. As a FF wife I find it difficult to find people who can relate to us and the life that we have chosen to live (and love, regardless of how bizarre it may seem, we just wouldn't have it any other way). It is a life without schedule and certainty and often lacks organization, intimacy, communication, and sanity. In our household it is not at all unlikely to find itself in complete chaos. I have a terribly messy schedule myself that I try to set around my husband's known time away (what we know for certain, the twenty-fours and trainings). I am working part time outside of the home as well as attempting to begin and run a business of my own right in our living room/dining room/office. Aaron works in a twenty-four on forty-eight off cycle and in New Hampshire they have "Kelly" days every third week (I think I stated that right......). On top of that he is often late coming home pending shift communications, any calls that require him to stay, or just paperwork he is catching up on. He has training every Tuesday evening and if for some reason they don't he most likely has it in our home town where he is also a captain. When he's home he has two pagers open and will respond to both. If his Bristol pager goes off and it seems like they will be out long enough to require him to go back for station coverage (we live about 20 minutes away, so it isn't always worth while) off he goes. If the other pager goes off, he goes. He spends a few hours each week (most weeks) doing some sort of paperwork, truck check, or assignment at our local station as well.

Life for us is stressful. We never know when we'll have an uninterrupted meal, a quiet night, a full 24 hours together - heck, a full 12 hours together, or time to discuss anything important. If he isn't running out the door, I am.

Then there are the times where it all seems to happen at once. This past week was a perfect example. My husband went in for a 36 after a weekend of hardly seeing each other. He went in on a Sunday night and starting Monday morning had (what is for them) a very busy shift of around 9 calls by the time he left Tuesday morning. One incident required the DHART helicopter and another was a devastating car wreck that took the lives of three and a huge toll on all the EMS/fire/police and medical personnel involved. My husband had not slept in over 24 hours and came home to do just so around 1100. I woke him up around 1600 to make sure he would be able to sleep at night. We sat down together and had dinner and in spite of all he had been through he still managed to make jokes about marmalade (and later asked me what the hell marmalade actually is). Just after dinner we began hearing tones for two separate structure fires, one third alarm and one four alarm (I think..... or it was two and three...... they all sort of blend in my brain after a while). He left again and returned home somewhere around midnight. I don't remember him coming in at all, but I do know he was there when I woke up. Good thing he didn't give me a heart attack this time, it has come close to happening before (ok, perhaps I am a bit dramatic, but he has scared the daylights out of me before) and I lose all sleep for the rest of the evening. I went off to work and the rest of our week sort of continued the same. It has been very dry lately and there have been fires everywhere (so it seems). We finally sat down tonight with our daughter and enjoyed dinner, a movie, and ice cream. Holy cow, we survived.

While not every week is like that, most are pretty similar. When I say it is an world you have to be in to understand, I truly mean it. We catch a lot of grief for not having normal schedules, almost NEVER being seen together, and never doing anything, but our friends and family on this side of it seem to get it.

I suppose I could write about our life forever, but for the sake of my readers not falling asleep at the computer, I will share with you the actual intent of this assignment. My husband works in a small town, they don't always have crazy busy days and every now and then have shifts with nothing at all.

I arrived around 1000 and they were doing truck checks. Around 1100 they were called out at which point I left to do some errands and came back just as they were returning. I spent some time photographing and proving to them that they were free to be themselves because however my husband usually acted there he was just as awful at home (jokes, comments, and/or/otherwise..... they are men and it is a firehouse........ enough said). They carried on and I joined them for lunch before heading out to do their actual shift photos and to see them off as they left for another call.

Above: My husband performing truck checks. Below: They head out for their first call. Heading back in to do some paperwork..... a photo of my husband and I...... Above: my husband and FF Baldassare. Below: They get ready to take some photos in their gear. The senior FF student joins us for a few as well.... I have to say, that typically when I think firefighter photos, I instantly think black and white (old Chicago)..... However, my husband loved this in color so I had to share it that way. I owe a very huge thanks to the Bristol Fire Department and all those that allowed me to hang out and photograph throughout the day. It was very enlightening to see what a typical day is, even if we did take a short time out for some shots. I had a blast and hope to do it again, perhaps with another department all together........ Many thanks to my husband for encouraging me to go for my dreams and then asking me to do what I love most for him.