Humor. That is how Jason and Amy Gilliland, and their son Liam, balance life as emergency service workers and a family.
“If you have Thanksgiving dinner with us, feel free to choke,” Jason said.
Jason started his career as a Marblehead firefighter 40 years ago, and has now been the fire chief for 15 years. Amy is the civilian dispatch supervisor in Marblehead and has been working as a dispatcher for 28 years.
Liam followed in his father’s footsteps and became a Marblehead firefighter eight years ago. Now, he is a lieutenant and training officer at the department.
Although they are in highly stressful positions, all three love what they do.
For Liam, he appreciates that he is now helping the community that raised him.
“You want to be there to help them on their worst day,” he said. “We don’t want anyone to go through that, but if they’re gonna go through it, we’re going to be there to help them.”
Jason agreed on this point and said everyone who works in public safety wants to give back to their community. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing the job.
“In my position right now, I get to do more than be fire chief,” he said.
In Marblehead, he said, department heads are a team and help each other out.
“Whoever needs help, we all work together,” Jason said.
Both Amy and Jason said a great aspect of their work is that there is something new everyday.
As a dispatcher, she said, you never know who or what is going to be on the other side of the call.
Jason said no day is exactly the same as a firefighter.
“You never get bored of your job,” he said.
All three have had some intense experiences in their line of work.
“I’ve had a kid with a homemade bomb blow up in his hand,” Jason said.
Both Liam and Jason have delivered babies for mothers who couldn’t make it to the hospital in time.
Amy recalled a time when someone came into the dispatch center, located at the Police Department, and handed her a finger they had cut off from their hand.
When she picks up a 911 call, the most important thing is that she stays calm.
“I’m not going to let them know the panic, they’re not going to hear it in my voice,” Amy said. “I’m gonna give them the information. It’s not my emergency, you just have to take yourself out of it. You’re like, ‘This is really bad, but it’s not mine.’”
In terms of fires, one of the biggest Jason responded to was around 2005 in the Intrepid Circle condo buildings. The buildings were in the construction phase when the middle one caught fire, he said.
“That was an arson job,” Jason said. “At that point, I was the fire investigator for the department so I investigated that. That was 48 hours I think without sleep on that one.”
The Tony’s Pizza fire of 2003 and the Penni’s Market fire of 1994 were two other major ones Jason said he responded to. Amy and Jason’s son Logan was born the day after the Penni’s fire.
Liam said that thanks to the residents of Marblehead, there haven’t been many big blazes during his time at the department.
“We’ve had a couple of total losses throughout the house,” Liam said. “Marblehead is a very neighborly town, so I’d say the amount of would-be incidents are taken care of by neighbors checking in on each other. So not a lot of incidents, or many things are put out before they get too big.”
The amount of fires everywhere have decreased, he noted, due to fire prevention and better technology.
Technology has also changed the way dispatching has worked significantly, Amy said.
“We can find anybody,” she said. “We had a woman this morning reporting her car was missing. And we’re able to check cameras to look for the car. We can find anybody, we can find anything.”
There are many challenges that come with being a family in emergency service work.
For Amy, one of the hardest parts was when Liam and Logan were kids and Jason had 24-hour shifts.
“It’s hard,” she said. “You get 3 feet of snow and I gotta figure out how to start the snowblower to clear the driveway because he’s not coming home”
Holidays also look different for the Gillilands compared to the average family.
“We don’t necessarily celebrate Christmas on the 25th,” Liam said. “We may celebrate it a week later when everybody has the shift off.”
But growing up with two parents in the emergency services field was still “exciting.”
“I think we made the most of it and I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he said.
Jason emphasized how great of a job being a firefighter is.
“One of the most important things in my mind is you can get a job where you make a lot of money and be miserable, or you can get a job that you love to do every day and make a modest amount,” Jason said.
