When Peter Maschal’s wife, Laura, rescheduled her husband’s chiropractic patients and left a note on the door just before Christmas, everyone understood.

“I thought I’d be back in time for work, but the fire had other ideas,” he said of a blaze that he responded to at 4:30 a.m. in December. “All of my patients are great. They know I’m a firefighter. They understand that when duty calls, I need to go.”