VIDEO: Since Corey Spencer was a little boy, he's wanted to be a firefighter. So, when he turned 14, he joined the fire department as a junior volunteer.
"And loved it,” Spencer’s mom, Linda, said. “He was up there every day after school."
Linda was inspired so she decided to become an EMT.
"It became a competition between him and me - who could get their firefighter certificate first," Linda laughed.
Corey quickly bonded with fellow firefighter, Zeb Pugh.
"We had the same passion and we knew that this is what we were going to do,” Pugh recalled. “It wasn't a hobby; it was a lifestyle."
And it kept the now 26-year-olds busy through the years, until one day last month. While working at Pinecroft Sedgefield Fire station #24, Corey didn't feel well.
"He was just feeling tired and said he needed a little bit of a break from the fire department," Linda remembered.