They answer dozens of calls throughout a shift and hundreds in a lifetime.
But what started out as a routine fire call for one London fire fighter quickly turned into a dangerous situation for both him and his crew
Phillip King says he's lucky to be alive.
"Top side of my head and somewhere back here is the area where the second degree burn is," says King.
He's healing nicely but less than a week ago, King's forehead looked much worse after being burned while fighting a house fire.
"When we pulled it up it seemed what we considered to be a routine fire, nothing much going on but it changed very, very quickly," says King.
The fire broke out at 104 Clarence Street on Saturday afternoon.
Fire officials say no one was home at the time of the blaze.
Not knowing if anyone was inside when they first arrived fire crews entered the home, they were a little over ten feet into light smoke when suddenly things took a turn for the worse.
"Things just changed immediately, the smoke darkened and we started to have a tremendous amount of heat. I hollered at my branch man and said, 'Something is wrong, get down! We gotta get out of here!" says King.
While exiting, King's helmet got knocked off that's how he sustained burns to his head.
"It wasn't literally but it felt like my whole head was on fire," says King.
His helmet's shield on the front completely melted.
The other two firefighters that were also inside had melted gear and both sustained minor injuries.
King admits it was a scary situation.
But he knows they are all lucky to be alive
"The room that flashed if we had been another foot like from you to me away. We would have had another outcome," says King.
