By FIreRescue1 Staff
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — Two firefighters who started their fire careers on the same day ended their final shift in the same fashion.
VC Star reported that Ventura County Fire Department firefighters Phil Hadley and Terry Lamb were hired to be part of the hand crew on the same day in June 1980.
“It’s a blessing working with your best friend each day,” Hadley said.
Hadley and Lamb both graduated from the fire academy in 1983 after two-and-a-half years on the hand crew and worked at separate stations before serving together on the same crew for the past 24 years.
The two firefighters came full circle and began their retirement on the same day, working their last shift together.
“To be able to do that is a great comfort,” Hadley said. “We’ve known each other longer than we’ve known our wives.”
Fire officials said the working relationship between the two is a rarity in the fire industry.
“Some of the reasons why people move around a lot is because they may not get along with certain people,” Engineer Scott Wirz said. “You get into a station with two or three other people and realize it’s not really meshing, not really working. So you move somewhere else where you think it might work. Obviously, you stay together with somebody that long, there’s a good camaraderie there; there’s a brotherhood there.”
“We’ve been together so long that you know each other’s thoughts in emergencies,” Hadley said. “Everything flows well because he knows what I’m thinking, I know what he’s thinking. ... Every time we go on a structure fire – that makes a big difference.”
The two firefighters said the transition into retirement won’t be an easy one.
“As much as we don’t want to leave, we also know it’s time to move on,” Hadley said. “It’s comforting to be able to do it with ... your best friend, to walk through it together, walk through emotions and stress of that.”
“It does make it easier going out together,” Lamb said.