After 32 years as a Gilroy firefighter, John Espinoza takes
retirement
Gilroy – Firefighter John Espinoza began the last day of his 32-year career with the Gilroy Fire Department right back where he started – standing in front of the old fire station on Fifth Street Saturday morning.
His crew was responding to a call across the street when he came to face-to-face with his past. Afterwards, they headed back to Chestnut Station where he recounted the old days – when Gilroy was still using an engine purchased at the 1939 World Fair – before the luxury of power steering and closed cabs, before firefighters relied on maps to navigate their way around town and were Emergency Medical Technicians, when firefighters were called firemen and dispatched their own calls.
“It’s all computerized now,” Espinoza said. “Before you knew every street in town. You had to know it, every back street. You knew everybody. The doors (of the fire station) were always open. It’s not as personal now … Maybe it’s easier, maybe it’s for the best. I don’t know, I’m a hands-on kind of guy.”
He doesn’t have a cell phone. He doesn’t know how to operate a computer. He’s an expert at pouring cement, welding and plumbing. He can make a gourmet meal out of leftovers and he can improvise with any tool in a toolbox. He is considered a dying breed.
“John is not a firefighter. He’s a fireman,” explained Engineer Andy Holiday who was hired on two days after Espinoza. “That’s what he was hired as and that’s what he is. Nowadays, they hire paramedics. He’ll always be a fireman. He was hired as a fireman and he’ll go out as a fireman, and proud of it.”
Younger firefighters look to Espinoza for stability. He never loses his cool on a call. His presence is assuring, his experience invaluable.
“I’ve always said that if there’s anyone I want going into a burning building with me, it would be John. You definitely know he’s got your back,” said Engineer Colette Harmon. “He just has so much knowledge and experience, you just can’t replace him. Too bad you can’t bottle it, or put it in a book and open it up later.”
The 53-year-old began working as a firefighter in 1970 when he joined the U.S Department of Forestry. He traveled to Yosemite that summer when he was just 17.
“I tried it one season. Flames everywhere. Hot. Dirty. I thought, ‘I like this,'” he said.
He then served for two years in the U.S. Army as a radar specialist stationed in Key West, Florida. A photo floating around Chestnut fire station shows a young Espinoza riding an anti-aircraft missile, looking every inch the trouble maker he still is.
“I’m not very predictable, that’s the thing,” he said smiling, the corners of his eyes wrinkling.
Espinoza has a reputation for having a quirky sense of humor and sneaking up on people – he has taken several years off other firefighters lives from startling them from around fire engines and darkened doorways.
He also has a reputation for helping anybody who needs it.
Whenever he’s spotted around town there’s usually a trailer attached to the back of his pickup, on his way to build someone a fence, pour concrete, or deliver plants to a friend.
Firefighters often give Espinoza a call when they need home repair advice.
“He’s number one on telling how to do it, and number two, helping you do it,” Holiday explained. “And he’s always been that way. He’s absolutely there for anyone who needs help.”
The atmosphere at Chestnut Station will be different now that Espinoza retired.
“Our job is very, very unique. It is a second life, a second family really,” explained Harmon. “He’s like a brother to me we’ve worked together so long.”
Today will be her first shift working without Espinoza, and the loss is personal.
She is one of the first two female firefighters hired in Gilroy, and many people did not welcome the women to the department.
“A lot of the guys really did not want us there,” she explained. “John was the first to welcome me. I owe my career to John.”
His work on the engines inspired her to become an engineer.
“He taught me how to work smarter, not harder,” she said. “As long as you show him respect and don’t take him for granted, he’ll show you everything you want to know.”
And, he’s known for working behind the scenes.
“I think a lot of it is his work ethic,” said Capt. Joshua Valverde. “He had to work very hard at a very young age.”
He grew up in San Martin, in a family of migrant workers. They worked in the fields, taking Espinoza with them at an early age, picking strawberries in May and walnuts in October.
He’s never slowed down either.
“Things just get done around the station,” Harmon said. “Hooks get hung up, broken things get fixed, hoses get rolled up – and that’s John. People don’t really realize it, and I think they’re really going to miss it.”
When Espinoza speaks it’s matter-of-factly.
In three decades of firefighting he’s seen it all – gruesome car accidents, billowing flames, earthquakes, floods, the day the Twin Towers fell.
He was working that day and watched as they crumbled.
He doesn’t dramatize the event, telling you how he watched as a plane flew into the second tower and firefighters watched on TV, knowing other firefighters were inside.
On his last shift a stream of firefighters and family members came to say farewell to the man with the bushy black eyebrows and wild hair. As paramedics left he shook their hands, “It’s been a hell of a career. I don’t know what to say.”
One firefighter asked him whether he was going to miss the working.
“No,” he said.
“Are you going to miss us?” he asked, his eyes widening.
“No.”
“Are you going to come visit us?”
“Yes,” Espinoza said with a smile.
