Captain: Joining Fire Department 'Best Thing I Ever Did'

Captain Chris Shepherd has been at New Tampa's Station 22 since it opened this past April on Cross Creek Boulevard.

He previously worked at Station 10 near Ybor City, Station 11 in Sulphur Springs, and spent most of his 27-year career at Station 13 near Busch Boulevard and 30th Street. Shepherd's son Chris is also a City of Tampa firefighter.

Shepherd worked as a union carpenter in Tampa for 10 years before joining the fire department and says, "It turned out to be the best thing I ever did." He grew up in Tampa, graduating from Leto High School. He is just two-and-a-half years away from retiring.

Patch: How did you get into firefighting?

Shepherd: I just wanted a different career path than what the union carpentry job was giving me. Half of the time, I was out of work and it's a rough road swinging a hammer for a living. I had some friends that were city firefighters and I decided I'd try to change my future.

Patch: Describe one of your most harrowing experiences on the job.

Shepherd: It was in the summer about four years ago when I was at Station 13 and jerrying over to Station 7. We got a call that this guy had a gun and was walking around threatening people. He'd set fire to his house and barricaded himself inside. One firefighter went in the front with an attack line and I went around and crawled through a side window. There was the guy in the room but he was unconscious. He weighed about 240 pounds but I got him up and pushed him out through the window. I do believe he survived. 

Patch: What was one of your most rewarding experiences on the job?

Shepherd: This was when I was at Station 11 in the fall of 2010. We responded to a lady who had been in a motorcycle accident on I-275. It was the 5 p.m. rush hour. She hadn't been wearing a helmet and a truck hit her. When we got on the scene she was laid out on the road. She had road rash from head to toe. The traffic was really bad so we had to put her in the back of the rescue car to work on her. We called in the trauma alert and raced her to St. Joseph's Hospital. From there we didn't hear anything else about it, didn't even know if she'd made it. About a month later, she contacted us, thanked us, said she knew she wouldn't be here if it weren't for our quick response. She was so happy to just be alive.

Patch: What do you do to decompress after a long shift?

Shepherd: I once had 22 calls on a shift. Just go home, relax around the house. I built a 1934 Ford Coupe street rod — took me 6 years to build it. That's kind of my method. I also like to go saltwater fishing.

Patch: If you weren't working as a firefighter, what do you think you would be doing?

Shepherd: I'd probably still be in construction.