On Tuesday, Oct. 27, Flagstaff Fire Captain Marc Goldberg rode in a fire engine for the last time as his crew delivered him home.
It’s tradition that when a firefighter is retiring, their crew drives them home one last time.
Before he retired last week, Goldberg had been a firefighter for over 30 years, 25 of them working for the Flagstaff Fire Department. But since March, Goldberg said, it has felt like he has worked five more years on top of that.
That’s because COVID-19 has kept them even busier than usual, all the while forcing some firefighters to the sideline of an already understaffed department.
So far this year, the department has seen at least six different firefighters test positive for COVID-19, said Flagstaff Fire Chief Mark Gaillard. That often means several other firefighters quarantining for as long as 14 days in case they, too, have the virus.