Quick Take
Central Fire District Captain Steve Ramirez died unexpectedly this weekend while on duty at his station. The 54-year-old served with the district for 24 years, and is remembered for an upbeat, joyous personality that lifted his colleagues up during even the most difficult circumstances, and as a man who loved his family and friends more than anything.
Steve Ramirez’s colleagues at the Central Fire District of Santa Cruz County call him a “hugger,” a defining characteristic of his personality — one that was rare and much needed in a strenuous line of work where emotional distance can be commonplace.
“He could always find the fun even in really challenging situations. The guy just loved to laugh and loved to have fun,” said Central Fire Chief Jason Nee. “This job is really hard. It’s hard emotionally, it’s hard physically, and it’s hard on your family life. You wake up at crazy hours and you’re expected to do superhuman stuff. Steve always found the fun side of it and made working with him very enjoyable.”
Ramirez, 54, unexpectedly died while on duty Saturday night. He had served with Central Fire for 24 years. (Ramirez’s oldest daughter, Brittany, is Lookout’s lead marketing and sales coordinator.) Flags flew half-staff Monday, and will remain there for 30 days following his memorial ceremony. Central Fire District firefighters and staff will wear a black band across their badge in honor of Ramirez until after his memorial.
He began as a paid call firefighter in 1999 and was promoted to a full-time firefighter in 2000. He took another step up in 2009, when he was awarded the rank of fire captain, a position he held until his death on Saturday.
Before joining Central Fire, Ramirez was a seasonal firefighter with Cal Fire from 1989 to 1999. Nee said Ramirez also worked on a helitack crew — a team of wildland firefighters transported by helicopter to wildfires — for a number of years, which made him a seasoned veteran for both Nee and others in the department. “If you know anything about Cal Fire, they do some really challenging, hard work,” Nee said. “If you come from a helitack base, you’re somebody who’s going to be a very hard-working individual.”
Rick Andrews, Central Fire captain and president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 3535, the union representing the district’s firefighters, said Ramirez was the union’s most senior fire captain and was viewed as an unofficial leader by the crews. As a leader, Andrews said Ramirez always maintained his loving, compassionate nature.
“You don’t always get to see that and experience that in the fire service. A lot of the time, we have to shift gears to accommodate certain situations,” Andrews said. “But you knew if you saw him, he would speak to you in the same way. Regardless of rank or experience, everyone was the same in his eyes.”
Ramirez’s infectiously joyful demeanor was more than just a personality trait, said Nee. It also helped his colleagues through hardship.
“He could work as hard as anybody when we needed to do the work, but when there was a little bit of downtime, he would be the one to walk by you and make a quip or say something silly,” he said. “Kind of keep things light and maybe make fun of your own situation a little bit.”
Beyond providing support in the field, Ramirez was also a leader in the union’s peer support program, which meant that he was the person his colleagues could reach out to outside of work for any assistance with mental health, family and financial issues, or even workplace problems.
“The profession is very dynamic and taxes us in every way possible. Steve was that person that could connect those dots and put us into contact with others and just be that ear to listen to all of us,” said Andrews. “That just showed the type of person he was. He was there to provide support when we needed it the most.”
Central Fire Division Chief Patrick Winters, who was hired at the same time and went through the same recruiting class as Ramirez, said they had been friends ever since. He said that while Ramirez’s death is a “significant shock,” and he is still processing his friend’s passing, his mind is mostly going to his relationship with Ramirez while off duty.
“We came into the fire service at similar points in our own lives. We both already had or were having small children, worked on each other’s house, helped each other move, took our kids to the beach,” Winters recalled. “Just a lot of really fond memories.”
Winters, like Nee and Andrews, said that Ramirez’s playful, amicable personality stood out across his entire tenure with Central Fire, making the work environment better even in the toughest circumstances.
“He enjoyed cracking jokes, he had a quick wit and a real, genuine care for the people around him,” he said. “You live together for sometimes 48 to 72 hours at a time. Sometimes you go out on a wildland fire for two weeks at a time and you’re together for 24 hours a day. It’s not always the easiest thing to get along, but I would say that Steve definitely helped with that.”
Winters said that while Ramirez exhibited an unwavering commitment to his work, his love for his family always shined through.
“He really loved his girls,” he said. “Whenever he would get a phone call from one of his kids, his face always just lit up. You could tell and you could hear that still being connected to them was a really high point for him. I think that was reflective of his interaction with all the people he worked with, he considered them family as well.”
Andrews and Nee both said the entire department is grieving and processing Ramirez’s death just as though they had lost one of their own family members. Nee said it’s hard to accept that Ramirez’s time doing what he loved like surfing and spending time with his family has been cut short, especially as retirement drew closer.
“That’s where I really feel saddened because, gosh, the guy put over two decades into serving this community, and he doesn’t get that full opportunity to experience that,” he said.
As the Central Fire team comes together to mourn its loss, Winters says he’ll miss Ramirez’s experience, passion and, most importantly, their friendship.
“We get pretty accustomed to trying to help people through some of these similar types of times. It’s something that is fairly common in this line of work,” he said. “But when it happens to one of your own, it certainly hits extra hard.
“He loved his friends, he loved the fire service, and he loved his family most of all.”
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