VIDEO: While many people are off work spending time with family and friends, emergencies don't stop.
In fact, there's more than two-thousand building fires on Thanksgiving every year.
That's where paramedics and firefighters like Anthony Mahder come in.
Mahder has known he wanted to be a firefighter since he was young.
"There was a fire when I was younger. My mom and sister were stuck in the fire. They went in, pulled me aside, and then they were luckily okay," explains Mahder.
Now, he's working his first Thanksgiving as a Joplin firefighter.
"It's not bad. I do have one son, so it can be kind of iffy," says Mahder.
The entire crew at the Joplin Fire Department is away from their families, working until 7 am on Friday, and expecting to get any kind of call.