There must be something in the water in Mediapolis, Iowa, where the fire department has welcomed six babies in the last seven months.
The volunteer firefighters insisted they didn’t plan the births and that they were simply coincidence.
“I think the stars just kind of aligned and the timing for us individually as families just worked out,” said Capt. Troy Garrison, 36, who welcomed his daughter Emma into the world four months ago.
Capt. Tom Brockett, who’s been volunteering at the fire station since 2001, was the last to inform the rest of the group that he and his wife, Megan, were expecting three weeks ago.
Although the Brocketts were thrilled for the rest of the couples, they were privately undergoing in vitro fertilization as each and every announcement came in.
“We were just really praying that we’d get to be part of that,” Brockett told ABC News. “And then finally we got to come out [and say] ‘We’re pregnant.’”
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Volunteer firefighter Adam Welp, who has been with the station for three years, welcomed his second child, Kalvin, six weeks ago. Welp and his wife, Katie, are also parents to a 2-year-old girl named Kolby.
Welp said it was “fun” to watch his colleagues become parents.
“For me, it’s kind of fun because a couple of the guys — like Tom and Troy — they’re a little older than me but this was their first child,” Welp said. “It was fun to be younger, but showing them the ropes.”
Photographer Debbie Brissey caught the moment the six firefighters got their new children together for the first time.
Welp called the get-together a “blast,” adding that his wife created the miniature skirts and trousers for the babies during her maternity leave with old gear.
The firefighters, who are among 25 volunteers at the station, already have a plan in place in the event that they all get called to duty.
“The plan is just for everyone to go to the fire station and hopefully one of the wives will be there to hand our kids off to,” Brockett said.
Going forward, running into a burning building may be a tad more taxing that it was pre-fatherhood, Garrison said, adding that he remembers the “first time” he went to fight a fire after having his daughter: “But, you get on the truck and recheck your priorities.
“We still have a job to do,” he added. “The public depends on us to do our job the best we can.”
(H/T: ABC News)
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