Thousands of Americans go to work on Christmas day

DENMARK, Tenn. — While many Americans spent Christmas day with their family and friends, thousands of others spent the day serving the community.

Madison County Fire Chief Eric Turner was on the scene of a tractor-trailer fire that happened shortly after 2:00 off of Highway 138.

“Well, you know our first responders have to work all the time,” he said, “Unfortunately, bad things don’t take holidays, so that is why we are here today.”

No one was hurt in the fire, but many responders and firefighters were called in from their family gatherings to help put out the blaze.

They say working on holidays is a small price when it comes to potentially saving a life.

“It’s just part of the job, we understand when we take this position that we are subject to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year,” Don Friddle, Fire Marshal for the Madison County Fire Department said.

Friddle says that anyone that works in emergency services understands that their work never stops.

“That’s part of what we do,” he said. “We help out the community no matter what day it is.”

Many employees in the food industry also clocked in to work Christmas day.

Roman Ester, manager of Applebee’s on Stonebrook Place says the restaurant was open until 11:00 p.m.

“It’s an important day because we are a college town, and a lot of college kids don’t have families in town or can’t afford to go home, so I’m am glad we can give them a place to come.”