As a figure of speech, you could say teachers have a lot of experience at "putting out fires." However, some are doing that literally.
The Greensboro Fire Department has noticed that dozens of people on its team are former teachers, and the department says their background is filling an important need, especially among new recruits.
"There's a lot of academics in training, and there's a lot of tests and state tests and tests within the Greensboro Fire Department that they have to pass. If they don't have that good instruction, it's hard for them to pass," assistant chief Dwayne Church said.
Captain Chris Heyn is a former Guilford County Schools science teacher.
"It was a surprise to some people. I mean I'd been teaching for 11 or 12 years and I was in my mid-30s and I was becoming a firefighter," he said.