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Sound the Alarm

Mary Burich | January 16, 2018

People

How Hormel® Chili helped Jeremy Chauvin honor his fallen hero

Sitting down to share a home-cooked meal is a time-honored tradition among firefighters. Born of practicality, it allows them to work long shifts and stay close to the station in the event of an emergency. It also serves what may well be a loftier purpose. Communal meals help build an espirit de corps among men and women who put their faith in each other – and their lives on the line – every time they go to work. For them, any meal could be their last.

It happened that way for Spencer Chauvin, a Louisiana district chief. A minor car accident in August 2016 turned fatal when a bus came upon the site of the crash, clipping the firetruck and slamming into another vehicle. A passenger was killed, two firefighters were injured, and Spencer, 36, fell 30 feet to his death.

“I miss him,” says Jeremy Chauvin, a fellow firefighter who happens to be one of Spencer’s younger brothers.

He is perhaps more aware than most of the dangers of the job. “We’ve all grown up with this in our lives,” Jeremy says, explaining that his father was a fire chief, and another of Jeremy’s brothers was a firefighter.

In addition to following in his father’s footsteps, Jeremy is doing his part to feed his co-workers. He can often be found in the kitchen of his station house, preparing recipes handed down from his grandfather.

“He was a big cook,” Jeremy says. “He always cooked for a lot of people, and he was great at it.”