SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Fabian Ayala worked hard during a simulated rescue to train future Seminole County firefighters how to do the real thing.

​This particular training was an apartment fire where recruits like Ayala had to go into a burning building over and over again to try to save as many people as possible. It’s the final simulation in eight weeks of intense training.

Ayala and his partner were able to save two victims during the training.

“For the first primary search, mission accomplished, yeah,” Ayala said right after the rescue. 

While he and the other 23 recruits are happy to finish training, they’re itching to get out in the real world and start saving lives.

“I’m ready to get out into the field and work," Ayala said. "This is what I joined to do."

But he didn’t always want to be a firefighter. He was in college studying to be a civil engineer when, on a day off, he was playing basketball with some friends and got a call that his father had collapsed. 

Seminole County firefighters responded to the scene. 

"The way the firefighters treated my dad, carried themselves, the respect they carried the way they put him first really inspired me at that moment," Ayala said. 

So the next day, when he had a test in one of his college courses, he made a decision. 

“I took the test. I drew a fire station in the back, turned it in, and my instructor or teacher at the time was like, 'You know you kind of failed,' and I was like, 'I know, but I’m gonna be a firefighter,'" Ayala said. "The next day I changed my life around and signed up for all the right classes and it started off for me."

His father watched proudly at a recent Seminole County firefighter graduation ceremony as his son joined the ranks of the very men and women who saved his life.