By Jennifer Litz
Editor
February 16, 2008

On a Wednesday in early January, the San Angelo Fire Department B shift is seated around a long table, fiddling with red flyers. Assistant Chief Lyle Daniel explains the crew is “putting their Valentines together.”

The men are actually preparing Circus Gatti tickets for local members of the firefighter’s union. But the quip fits with the spirit of this large family of men, who show their affection with nicknames and brotherly pranks. Firefighter “Mack” McElroy counts at least four dead bobcats that have been left for him to find in the station bedroom. “They weren’t all in my bed,” he says. But at least one of was dead. They called him “Stinky.”

When you spend 10 24-hour shifts per month with the same guys, sleeping in the same station and responding to life-threatening calls, such banter is the language of love and camaraderie. The SAFD is going to hate this depiction—they shy away from pictures and interviews, typically, because other shifts and coworkers will taunt them mercilessly. That’s the culture: These men aren’t just pretty faces. They face death—including their own—regularly.

The ending isn’t always happy. Chief Daniel recalls a recent tanker explosion that simply couldn’t be helped. “A tank truck blew up [in December] outside of town, and the driver wasn’t able to get out,” he says. “It was about 10 miles out of town. If [firefighters] had stayed there, it would have put more people at risk. So the officer there backed everyone out. Four minutes later it exploded, taking a quarter-mile radius chunk out around it.”

The San Angelo Fire Department makes 14,000 EMS and fire runs a year, according to Chief Daniel. Firemen have had to train as paramedics since 1990. The SAFD now runs 10 ambulances, offering cardiac drugs, defibrillators, and advanced life support. They run service to both hospitals, as well as statewide transfer services, if patients need to be run to San Antonio, Dallas, etc.

Too often, these men are dismissed as the hollow innards of cheesy “Firemen” calendars, or the façade behind thematic bachelorette stripper dances. (In truth, one SAFD firefighter—a former Mr. Texas who now plays bass in a local band—probably did a calendar or two in his day.) So here’s our Valentine card to the SAFD—and our readers. Behold the hunks with a heart of the SAFD (A and B shifts).

Jesse Scaggs
Status: Single
Sign: Sagittarius

Scaggs is new to the department; he came on in December 2007. He came to the fireman calling via a friend of his in Odessa who was going to school to be a firefighter. “Once I started thinking about it, I thought, ‘that’s the thing I’m supposed to do,’” Scaggs says.

He hasn’t gone on any fire calls yet, but he has “worked a code on a patient,” which involves coordinating administering drugs, iv’s, and other resuscitative materials for patients in cardiac arrest. These firsts require Scaggs to bring ice cream for the office. “I usually buy it before the shift just in case,” he says. “Our chief likes butter pecan.”

Patrick Brody
Status: Married
Sign: Sagittarius

Chief Lyle Daniel
Status: Single
Sign: Scorpio

Assistant Chief Daniel has been a firefighter since ’87—back before they made a rule banning “messing” with other firefighters’ gear or food. Daniel still remembers one time he jumped into his boots during a night emergency call. The boots had been filled with water, and he was sopping wet the entire night—no time to stop. This single stallion from Brady plans on retiring in 4 or 5 years, and is too handsome not to have someone to share that with.

Kevin Ernhart
Status: Single
Sign: Aries

 

David Geron
Status: Married
Sign: Scorpio

 

Drayton Harris
Status: Engaged
Sign: Aries

Jason Jacoby
Status: Single
Sign: Cancer

Jason “New Guy” Jacoby did ranch work before applying to the department a little over a year ago. Now that he’s part of this fiery force, he probably won’t stay single for long!

CJ Naylor
Status: Married
Sign: Sagittarius

Jason “Dimples” Walker
Status: Married
Sign: Capricorn

This looker has been with the department for over 3 years. “It’s a brotherhood,” Walker says. Walker is a bit of a prankster, but he knows how to survive the antics of his other brethren: Since it’s an unofficial rule that SAFD men buy the rest of the boys ice cream whenever they’ve completed a first—first delivery, first fire call, etc.—Walker sticks with a policy of “having done it all before.”

Austin Weitner
Status: Married
Sign: Doesn’t know