Aaron Perez Fuerte was appointed as a firefighter, EMT and hazmat tech by the Columbus City Council earlier this week, a job he has wanted since his mother’s bad car accident more than a decade ago.
Perez Fuerte’s mother was on her way to work in 2006 when her car went off the road near Madison due to black ice. Her car rolled down the hill and though she was pretty hurt, she was able to climb up the hill to get help, he said.
“It was (tough). I was still a kid pretty much and not knowing what was going on with her,” Perez Fuerte said during a phone conversation Thursday after his first 24-hour shift. “I actually got to ride in the ambulance to Omaha with her and everything, so that was kind of an experience for me.”
The firefighters and medics were the ones to help her out, he added, and just seeing that pushed him toward wanting to do it.