It’s like my third or fourth family. It’s another place to call home.

Ever since I can remember, most of my childhood was spent playing under the roof of a fire station, creating friends with the firefighter’s on my dad’s shift. It was extraordinary. Most of our family pictures were taken on the ledge of the front of the fire truck. And each year, it was on a different truck. Sometimes it would be a ladder truck or the fire engine.

Getting dirty was always an option. We couldn’t wear white because dirt littered the floor, the walls and basically the air. My brothers and I ran, played hide and seek and felt at home. Throughout the last 21 years, my dad has called three different fire stations home. There is an instantaneous feeling of belonging when I step through those doors.

Being a firefighter’s daughter, everyone knows me. Wherever I go, someone is bound to tell me that they’ve known me since I was a toddler. Do I remember them? Definitely not. But it’s the thought that counts. As a teenager in college, I can still walk through the doors of a fire station and will be instantly recognized.

Growing up in a fire house has made me who I am today, and having such a great dad as a first responder is even better. I learned early the works of a fire station. I went on countless rides in the fire trucks and spent hours there. Fire stations will never get old, at least not to me anyways.

You may have heard of Chicago Fire, which takes place in Chicago, IL and produces a show about the works of a fire station, but that’s reality tv. The real show is hidden behind the big doors and those that wear the uniform, the ones that risk their lives to protect and serve their community, day in and day out, 24 hours/7 days a week.

It’s the firefighters we should say thank you to:

• to the ones that protect our communities from wildfires and clear accidents off the highway
• to the ones that rescue people from river rafting trips, rock climbing incidents and burning buildings
• to the ones that never stop fighting even when they are running on no sleep

I am proud to say that I am a firefighter’s daughter, and proud of my dad for who he has become.