When you join the ranks of the Houston Fire Department, you also know the dangers.
"We fear the red car," Melanie Willingham said. "That red car that pulls up to tell you bad news."
Sometimes it's the most unexpected calls that change lives forever.
"You always think it's going to be the big fires that are going to get you or do the most damage, but we tend to forget it's the little ones that can sneak up and get us," Cpt. Kenny Willingham said.
ABC13 talked with Captain Kenny Willingham in Sealy, where his career began. On January 6, he was overseeing a call from his post at HFD Station 75 to a fire at an express mechanic shop on Highway 6. The team search eventually led them to an extension of the building where there was someone inside.
After knocking enough brick out to check on the man, the captain took his helmet off to be able to get his head inside when the man stabbed him in the eye.