This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

Up next, we have a story from a young man named Caleb Bailey. Caleb is from

California and recently moved to Asheville, North Carolina for work. Here he is sharing his family's

story, beginning with his dad, who from a very young age, wanted to be a firefighter.

My dad wanted to be a firefighter so bad when he was a kid that he set his backyard on fire

just so the fire department would show up.

He was so excited to see them.

And, you know, my poor grandma was just like, I don't know how to explain this to you.

And then it's funny, you fast forward a few or some years later, and he is a firefighter. He had a heart for serving others in

that capacity. But when I was born, 10 days after I was born, my dad, Joseph Dupy, was killed in the line of duty as a Los Angeles city firefighter.

He was a captain and had been on the job for a while at that point.

He was responding to a structure fire early in the morning. It was a pet food factory,

and as him and his crew were fighting it, they decided to exit the building because the structure

was kind of collapsing. And so he got a signal from one of the emergency devices there that they

use if any of them are lost or trapped or

anything and they'll set off that signal and the rest of the crew will go and find them and help them out

and one of his crew members dropped his and that's what set it off so actually no one was really

in danger but they didn't know so he went back in to find that member.

And so while he was in, he walked into a room where the roof collapsed

and knocked his face mask off.

So he was, you know, inhaling all the smoke and toxins and stuff.

And then an oven in the building actually exploded and blew out and knocked him out at that point.

...