The ambulance, speeding along the sun drenched highway, finally comes to a screeching stop at a burnt out shell of a house. The driver, hoping with every muscle and fiber in his being that no one was hurt, jaw dropped, eyes full of tears that he hopes won’t come out, this is his job, I should be used to this by now, he thinks. But no, no kind of training could prepare him for a sight like this. The house still smoldering, he walks towards the remains of what once was a small house with a family.

The sight that meets his eyes is awful. It’s a cigarette butt. One tiny thing started this. He sees how much life can hang in the balance, one second it’s perfect and the next something terrible like this happens. He thinks, no one deserves something like this, they’ve lost everything.

After all of the smoke clears, the man walks inside. He sees the destruction and havoc caused by this fire inferno and he falls to his knees. He can’t take the destruction and the sadness of the scene. His boss calls him, but he’s not listening, he’s sobbing, captured in the moment. His boss calls again, this time he hears him and comes. He walks towards him and asks, “What?” his boss tells him that the owners of the house are on vacation and that he has to call to inform them.

The poor ambulance driver simply replies with one word and then breaks out in tears. “ No.”

His boss asks “why not?”, “Because I don’t have the heart, I’m sorry boss. I cant tell these people.” He tells him.

“ It’s okay, his boss says. You’re a rookie, you’ll get used to it. I’ll get someone else”

“Thanks boss,” he says. Deep down, he thinks that he’ll never get used to awful sights like this.

After his day of work, on his way home, he passes something that puts things in perspective for him, how much of a help he can be to others. It’s not big, just a billboard thanking all of the emergency professionals who work daily but it really shows him that he is making a difference, and it makes him happy. Maybe everything wasn’t so bad after all.