MORGANTOWN — Thanksgiving is like any other day when you’re in the emergency services business.
A medic with Mon Health EMS for 18 years, Ron Wenig, said he’s worked a lot of holidays over his career, not just Thanksgivings.
Wenig said as a medic he also has to work on other days where some people might be able to skip going in, such as days when snowstorms shut down the roads.
Morgantown Fire Chief Mark Caravasos said people who get into public safety professions know they’ll have to miss some holidays and family events here and there.
“It’s part of the job,” Caravasos said. “You have to accept it.”
Caravasos said his department was fully staffed on Thanksgiving.
He said families often come to the firehouse on Thanksgiving or Christmas to share a meal or exchange gifts and spend time with their loved ones.
The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department was also be fully staffed, Chief Deputy Al Kisner said.
“I’ve worked many, many, many holidays,” Kisner said.
He noted in his first eight years with the department he didn’t have a single holiday off.
He said deputies are allowed to go home during regular lunch breaks to grab a Thanksgiving meal, but the breaks have to be staggered.
“With the understanding that if calls come in, it’s like a lunch break, you have to leave and go handle the call,” Kisner said.
Wenig said once you’ve been in the job long enough there comes to a point where you don’t have to celebrate on the actual holiday.
Call volume can vary on holidays, Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston said.
“There’s no predictor,” he said.
Wenig agreed the number of calls on a holiday can vary — just like any other day.
“Don’t say busy or quiet,” he said. “Those are buzzwords that start the calls.”
