Fire Captain Delivers Own Baby

Fire Captain Dan Reese �responded� early Monday morning to what is normally a routine emergency call for firefighters but in this case, the patient was his wife, Jade, who was in labor with the couple�s second child.

Capt. Reese, an air tactical officer with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection/Butte County Fire Department (CDF/BCFD), is assigned to a CDF OV-10 Bronco aircraft at the department�s Chico Air Attack Base facility. He was home on call after �timing out� his flight hours on a series of wildland fires in Butte County that occurred on Sunday, June 25. Capt. Reese awoke when the department�s Emergency Command Center paged him out to respond to a fire at 5:15 a.m. on Monday, June 26. He discovered Jade carefully trying -- despite her discomfort -- to not wake him, as she knew he was tired from the prior days activity.

Dan put Jade in the car and started to drive to the hospital when it suddenly became apparent that the birth of their child was imminent. Dan pulled off the road in front of nearby Shasta Elementary School and delivered his son, a healthy 8-pound baby boy, at 5:32 a.m. The couple named the baby Cooper William Reese.

�Everyone is doing fantastic,� said Jade Reese. �Mostly, I�m just mortified that I delivered Cooper on the side of the road. At least it was in front of the school he�ll attend when he�s in kindergarten. There�s a story for show and tell!�  In her role as a flight nurse on the area�s trauma helicopter, Jade has only delivered one baby during her nine-year career as an emergency responder. Dan, whose emergency service career spans 13 years, has responded to numerous maternity calls but had never delivered a baby in the field � until now.

�I�m not going to approve overtime for this incident,� joked CDF/Butte County Fire Chief Henri Brachais. �But I will allow the training bureau to issue Dan continuing education units towards his Paramedic/RN re-certification.�