'I don't have to wear a suit and tie, I don't have to be behind a desk'

His favorite color may be fire-engine red, but Greg Thaxton would prefer a Labrador retriever to run around the fire station to a dalmation.

Thaxton is a firefighter and paramedic for the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department. He and his wife moved to Coeur d’Alene 10 years ago from Ventura County, Calif., where he also served in the fire department. He has been with the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department for five years.

Thaxton earned a bachelor’s degree in occupational studies from California State University, Long Beach before he attended Butte College’s paramedic and firefighter academy. The firefighter academy is a semester long; the paramedic program takes two.

Thaxton has volunteered for the Butte County Fire Department. He began his career as a fireman for Arcadia, Calif. The biggest differences Thaxton has noticed between the Golden State and the Gem State is the difference in size: California fires tend to be larger. Everything else? Pretty similar, he said.

“My friend said, ‘Same clowns different circus,” Thaxon said. “No matter where you go, a firefighter’s a firefighter.”

His first job was a newspaper route, which he found repetitive. Now Thaxton — who first dreamed of becoming a fireman as a teenager in high school — said he enjoyed that his job was never monotonous. His tasks change daily; the situation is always fluid.

“It’s always something different and I don’t have to wear a suit and tie, I don’t have to be behind a desk,” Thaxton said. “Every day I show up to work and it’s something different. It’s predominantly all about helping people and that really appeals to me.”

When Thaxton isn’t at the fire station or fighting a blaze, he enjoys being outdoors, working with wood and spending time with his wife and two daughters. They also have two horses, four dogs and five cats.

Yes: A total of 15 family members of various age, gait, diet and personality.

“We have property, and I have a wife that absolutely loves animals,” he said. “I love my wife, so she says ‘Honey...’ and she bats her eyes, and I’m like ‘Ok.’”

One good part of a job that can have tough days: Thaxton and other Coeur d’Alene firefighters go to schools around the city to play games and eat lunch with the students. They teach the kids about public safety and, of course, fire danger. But the real goal is to build positive relationships with kids, to assure them a firefighter’s job is to protect them.

“We channel our inside child, and we try to look at how we looked up to firefighters when we were little kids. We want to be THAT firefighter,” Thaxton said. “We want to be the firefighter that every little kid thinks we are, and that’s the outgoing firefighter that will make time for you.

When it works? “We have a real opportunity to change their lives.”

Oh, and there’s this: Tradition holds that when a Coeur d’Alene firefighter’s name makes it in the newspaper, he’s required to buy his team ice cream. Enjoy a few scoops as summer draws to a close.

And stay outta harm’s way.