As schools let out and people rush out of their offices to begin their holiday celebrations, it’s important to remember not everyone has the luxury of spending the holiday with family and friends.

Some retail and department stores are preparing for Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day, while many men and women in uniform continue to stay on duty during one of the days everyone else takes off work.

“I will be here,” jailer Tracie Davenport said. “We don’t close.”

She usually works on the holiday and said the day can be quiet with the rest of the Warren County Sherriff’s Office closed, but other than that it feels like a regular day. The jail staff doesn’t get a special meal at work Thursday, but she will go home after work to eat with her family.

The inmates do receive a Thanksgiving meal cooked in the back of the facility by the same cook who prepares their daily meals. No outside organizations provide food.

Not only is the jail up and running, but also fire stations around town will be on stand-by to assist citizens in need. The firefighters on shift B will be working this Thanksgiving.

Vernon Wolfe, captain at Fire Station No. 6, said they were off on the holiday last year, and their shift rotation usually balances out to where they are not scheduled on consecutive holidays, but it does happen.

Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like a special day since they are at work like usual.

“After a while, it’s just like every other day,” Wolfe said. “This is part of what you sign up for when you become a fireman.”

As for how many calls the department receives, he said during the day it tends to be quiet, but once it becomes evening and people are in the full swing of their festivities, things can go wrong leading to them getting a call.

“More or less it just depends on the day,” Wolfe said.

The firefighters said they miss sharing in their family traditions and just being around loved ones.

Wolfe said a friend once said it really sinks in when they see the family picture taken with everyone gathered except them.

“A lot of family members don’t come home but those few times a year, and that’s one of times and you’re gone for 24 hours,” Wolfe said. “But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Being away from their family can be tough on them, but they don’t always have to be separated.

“It’s tough sometimes being away from your family, especially when you’ve got kids and they’re young,” Wolfe said. “Most of the time we make preparations for them to visit us or we try to do things here just like we do at home.”

Other times the firefighters meet together at the Central Fire Station to eat with each other as one big family.

“We are family here,” Wolfe said. “I see these people every third day. If you counted up the total hours we spend together we spend just as much time as we do with our own families.”