Scott Baker was the first to arrive on-scene at the Waterfall Fire in 2004. Above, he stands next to the fire engine that he and his crewmates were driving at the time.
Faith Evans/Nevada Appeal
Scott Baker has known since he was a little kid that he wanted to be a firefighter.
He was living in Sparks as a child when his family’s aquarium beneath the staircase caught fire. The damage to the house wasn’t bad thanks to the crew that responded to the call.
“This big burly, bigger-than-life fireman walked into my room, with his big mustache and his helmet and soot on his face. He picked me up and took me into my sister’s room and sat with us for a minute and said, ‘It’s going to be OK,’” Baker said. “It felt like truly an angel had just picked me up.”
For the last 34 years, Baker has counted himself among the lucky few who get to live their dream. The Carson City Fire Department hired him in 1990, and prior to that he spent two years working as an auxiliary firefighter for Truckee Meadows.
Though he lives in Reno, he’s witnessed momentous times in Carson City.
“I’ve been on some pretty major emergencies in this town. … Some pretty transcendent instances that changed the city,” he said.
Baker was with the first crew that arrived on-scene at the Waterfall Fire in 2004. He said that the fire was inaccessible when they got there, and he would never have anticipated how much worse it would get over the following days.
“It was maybe one of the few times in my career that I truly felt like this could be it. This one could end my life. … Seeing the Waterfall Fire was a game-changer for this whole community,” he said.
He was also on-call for the flood of 1997, the Meek’s Lumberyard Fire, the killing of Sheriff’s Deputy Carl Howell, and the IHOP shooting. His wife’s family owned Adele’s, and he married her at the restaurant in March 2019. Two weeks later, it burned down.
Still, Baker – who retired March 16 – said that it’s not the hardship that he likes to dwell on, but the camaraderie.
“Three decades in the fire service, you don’t look back at the calls you ran or the tragedies or the things that you saw that you wish you didn’t see. You look back at the brotherhood of it. I think (those) will be my fondest memories,” he said.
The fire department has their own version of family dinner – “the Table,” though, Baker joked, calling it a family dinner isn’t quite right. He said eating meals with his fellow crewmen is more like “family dinner on steroids.” It’s where they come together after hard days to laugh and bust each other’s chops.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s where we heal from the things that we’ve seen and experienced together. We can make light of it and talk about it,” he said.
He said that over the course of 32 years, he’s seen Carson City in its darkest days and brightest moments. Many of the residents he interacted with were experiencing the worst days of their lives, but he loved every moment of his job.
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