Alfonso Alvarez, whose job is relief coverage throughout the city's fire stations, calls Station 6 a "sleeper" because other firefighters don't know how nice it is, he says. Alvarez adds that from his outside perspective of occasionally filling in at Station 6, "The crews love the community, just as much as the community loves them."

Willow Glen resident and Fire Capt. Tom Reischl says the station's staff likes being deeply involved in the community and demonstrates their commitment to public service with events throughout the year. Willow Glen firefighters provide educational outreach to more than six schools annually, hold an open house for the community in October, and use their station as a drop-off location for Toys for Tots. The firefighters also participate in the Fill the Boot fundraising campaign for Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, standing on the corners of Minnesota and Hamilton avenues collecting donations in big black boots.

"You get a chance to affect people's lives every day," Reischl says.

And it's more than a job, with Station 6 firefighters participating in Willow Glen block parties and barbecues, says Fire Engineer Rich Ruggles, who's been a firefighter for 30 years and has worked the last two years in Willow Glen.

Attitude Beyond Work

Not only are the firefighters affecting lives in the community, but one of the unique aspects of their job is living with the people they work with, Ruggles says.

Like any family, they prepare and eat meals together, clean their residence, watch TV in the living room and spend holidays with one another when they're on duty.

"And we put up with each other's guff," Firefighter Paramedic Bryan Wong adds about the constant good-natured bantering.

And Fire Engineer Barry Stallard agrees that the individuals on each crew can make or break the working climate.

"It's not just 'Hey, can you take this hose into that building?'" Reischl says, "but it's 'Hey, can you clean the shower?'"

Besides sharing mundane chores, members of the unit also spend their off time together. Station 6 Firefighter Paramedic Kris D'Amico, who's been with the station for seven years, likes to go mountain biking with other firefighters in the department.

Often it's seeing the close-knit camaraderie of friends and relatives on the job that is the deciding factor for those considering the firefighting profession.

Ruggles' older brother was a 25-year veteran firefighter in San Jose, and Ruggles remembers visiting the various stations as a child.

"The firefighters always seemed really excited to go back to the firehouse," he says.

Rudy Gonzalez's son, 23-year-old Dustin, always knew he wanted to be a firefighter like his father.

"It's such a community-based thing," he says. "It's its own culture, and I grew up around it."

Dustin is currently taking his six months of paramedic training to qualify for the competitive selection process.

"Most people do it because they want to," says Reischl, whose father was a firefighter. "They're not just trying it out. That's why they stay so long."

Tracking Time

The close ties between the community and San Jose Station 6 can be traced back 70 years.

Even before Willow Glen had its own neighborhood fire station, a commitment to safeguarding the community was paramount, with Willow Glen volunteers serving as the only firefighting unit for the area.

After Willow Glen was annexed in 1936 into San Jose, the city opened a firehouse on Lincoln Avenue, replacing the volunteer force. And because the transfer occurred during the time of the Great Depression, the San Jose Fire Department used the Willow Glen Volunteers' fire engine—a 1929 American-LaFrance 500-gallon-per-minute pumper—until the city could afford to buy a new engine for the station in 1946, according to Richard L. Nailen's Guardians of the Garden City: The History of the San Jose Fire Department.

Willow Glen resident and retired Fire Capt. Sam Seibert, 84, recalls working four shifts in 1946 at Station 6 on Lincoln Avenue. He also recalls serving with some of the men who were former members of the original Willow Glen Volunteers unit. Seibert believes the original fire station, at 1342 Lincoln Ave., was located at Adobe Hall because of how the telephone poles are still placed today. He was on the job until 1976.

According to Nailen's book, the fire station moved in 1948 to a multipurpose building that was used as the Willow Glen branch library and firehouse, 1161 Minnesota Ave., to get away from downtown traffic congestion.

The building still contains marks of the fire station's brief residence. The kitchen cabinetry in the library's kitchen is identical to the kind the fire department builds in their stations, Ruggles says.

Retired Fire Capt. Vernon Cole, 79, used to work at the station when it was located in the library. "It was very homey," Cole says about the small kitchen, equipment room, TV room and dormitory attached to the library.

Cole became a San Jose firefighter in 1950 and spent his firefighting time from the early 1960s until his retirement in 1976 at Station 6.

The station moved again in 1963 to its present location at Minnesota and Cherry avenues, because the library was expanding, and took over the firehouse, Cole says.

A Brighter Future

Hundreds of firefighters have worked at the station on Minnesota Avenue during its 40-year existence. More than 70 retirees and current staff gathered to reminisce at the second annual reunion barbecue held on Sept. 20.

Over the years the station has grown. It now staffs three 24-hour rotating shifts with five positions per shift: a captain, two fire engineers, a firefighter and a firefighter paramedic. Each crew works every third day or 10 days a month. Fire departments implemented the 24-hour shift during the 1940s, says Seibert, who remembers the odd cooking hours his wife had to follow to allow the family to eat meals together after his 10-hour day shift or 14-hour night shift. Until 1963, Seibert says, the department ran only two shifts, making the total number of working hours 84 per week.

Changes in more than working hours and the firehouse's location have had an impact on the people who serve as Willow Glen firefighters.

Seibert says during his career, a firefighter relied on "plain blood and guts" rather than being "highly trained and mechanized" like crews are today.

Each engine had only two oxygen masks, which were rarely used because people "didn't worry about toxicity," he says. The equipment that was available in the late 1940s was military surplus gear that was five years old.

And the transportation that took them to the fires wasn't much better.

Back then fire engines were roofless, creating an uncomfortable ride in bad weather with the map books in the front of the vehicle getting wet in the rain, he says. He remembers driving back standing up from a fire on Auzerais Avenue during the winter because the windshield was covered in ice. The firefighters who hung onto the tailboard were also at the mercy of the road, and several men lost teeth during an especially jolting ride, Seibert says.

"We didn't know better," he says about the poor equipment and safety risks of an earlier fire fighting generation.

Stallard says the biggest change he's seen in the department has been the transition to hire a more diverse, racially mixed crew, with more women coming on board in the late 1980s. When he was hired in January 1986, San Jose's fire department had approximately 15 African Americans, 30 Hispanics and one woman on a staff of 650, he says. He's pleased to see that change, with the hiring of 50 African Americans, 150 Hispanics, 50 Asian Americans and 50 women.

D'Amico, one of two women who work at Station 6, says when she started as a firefighter paramedic 12 years ago, "there was definitely resistance" from individuals in the department who didn't want more females to join.

"Most of this job is common sense and having a good attitude," she says. "If you have a good attitude, people will always be willing to help you, but there's always people you don't hit it off with. But the guys I work with are great."

D'Amico, who used to work for an airline company, says knowing two other women who were firefighters whetted her interest in the job.

Better Prevention

With changes in technology and increased fire prevention, including the use of more fire-retardant materials, the industry has also shifted to meet the community's changing needs.

Today Station 6 firefighters respond to mostly medical emergencies, which make up 80 percent of their calls, Reischl says.

"There's a high percentage of older folks here," he says, adding that he witnessed only a few fires and car accidents during his first year at Station 6.

The amount of medical help and technology that firefighter paramedics can provide has also increased over the years, Reischl says.

"It's so sophisticated it's like an emergency room," he notes about the newest of the station's three fire vehicles, which carries a defibrillator for patients who go into cardiac arrest and a medicine chest with drugs.

The firefighting profession also markedly changed after Sept. 11 say fire crewmembers at Station 6. Gonzalez says the lessons firefighters learned from the terrorist attacks prompted changes in security, like renewed vigilance to lock the rig and the station so no one could steal an engine or gear and impersonate firefighters during a disaster. Firefighter John Martinez adds that new equipment has since been developed and distributed to increase firefighters' safety, including a kit with auto-injections for biochemical weapons.

Reischl says he was also impressed with the swell of public support, recognition and gratitude firefighters received after Sept. 11.

Part of the Job

The typical career span for a firefighter is usually 30 years, Ruggles says. After three decades the weight of the job has often taken a toll on their body and mind.

"It has a cumulative effect," Ruggles adds. "I don't want to see any more dead bodies, children hurt or people lose their property."

Reischl says one part of the job is knowing that a firefighter can leave for work in the morning and might not return when his or her shift is over. This knowledge was reinforced after the devastating loss of New York City Fire Department members in the attack of Sept. 11.

"Every time we go on a call, there's a lot of levity," Ruggles says. "We try not to think about our mortality."

But having the community's appreciation helps balance the potential risk.

"It's one of the few places where residents don't say 'the' firefighters, they say 'our' firefighters," says Stallard. "It's like a throwback in time."