Ding, ding, ding.

In Western Wake Station One’s lounge, Andrew Wallace looks up from his thermodynamics book. He stares for a second until his pager goes off. He checks the call — car fire off I-40.

He knows what to do.

He drops his books and runs down the narrow hallway to the garage. Racing over to his gear he starts to dress as fast as he can. Getting dressed once was a drill he had to do a thousand times or more, but now it is real.

Wallace steps into his tight, black, leather fire boots and pulls up the pants that are attached to the boots. Next it’s the coat and then the mask and helmet. He knows he must dress quickly.

“Every second can be the difference between life and death,” Wallace said.

After getting dressed for the call, he and his co-workers, each with about 80 pounds of equipment on them, pile into the truck. Wallace jumps into the front passenger’s seat where he is in charge of easing the petal up and down, keeping the siren at a steady beat and pulling down the wire that releases a loud honk with each tug.

Wallace leans over and turns on 96 Rock, blaring “Momma told me not to come” by Three Dog Night. Rock ‘n’ Roll is another part of the adrenaline rush.

“We rock out to the call,” he said.

Two minutes ago, he was a sophomore in chemical engineering and paper science studying for a mid-term, now he is a Western Wake firefighter. Wallace started his training to become a firefighter two years ago at the age of 18, a decision which he said led him to the career he is now pursuing, becoming a medical doctor.

“Really, one thing has led to another,” Wallace said.

For his “exit project” in high school, Wallace followed firefighters on three, 24-hour rounds. Wallace — a self-named “adrenaline junkie” — said he experienced an adrenaline rush on those calls that he just couldn’t give up.

“From the first time I went out with the light and the siren ringing, I was hooked,” Wallace said.

But firefighting isn’t always call after call, fire after fire. For JC Ferguson, a senior in psychology and a volunteer at New Hope Fire Department, nights have been filled with everything from structure fires in four-story buildings, getting cats out of trees or having no calls at all.

“Just as some nights are completely silent, some nights you go all night long,” Ferguson said.

Some calls, while not fires, keep the firefighters laughing.

Once, Ferguson and his co-workers had to answer a call getting a cat out of a tree. After they were unable to get the cat to come down, the firefighters decided to spray the hose, lightly, to knock the cat off the tree branch.

They applied too much water pressure, shooting the cat from the tree and throwing it onto a roof of a house. The cat, according to Ferguson, bounced off the roof and landed on the ground, uninjured.

Ferguson said they were scared that the owner would be mad about the accident, but the man simply told the firefighters that if they didn’t get the cat down, he was going to shoot the cat.

Wallace on the other hand, said he spends the majority of his nights, during his 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shifts, studying, sleeping or preparing for his 8 a.m. classes. But on nights when there are structure fires, Ferguson and Wallace said they couldn’t help but get excited.

“This house was completely and fully involved in flame. Seeing that for the first time was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Ferguson said.

Although he said he gets excited for calls like house and car fires, Wallace said he and the other firefighters wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Similarly, Chase Kneip, a junior in landscape technology and a volunteer firefighter in Salisbury, N.C., said calls are always exciting, but there is more to a fire than a burning building. Fires always affect someone.

“There are times that I wish we were winning a call, but I know that something unfortunate is happening to some family,” he said.

The firefighters also answer medical calls as first responders, doing everything from scene management to CPR. Unlike Wallace, Ferguson said he has seen people die “of various reasons” while on call.

“I can still see every face of every person, but I’ve come to terms with what I’ve seen,” Ferguson said.

According to Ferguson, other firefighters are sometimes “haunted” by things they have seen on EMS calls, but for him it’s more of a reminder of life than a taunting nightmare.

Even with the structure fire calls and deaths, Ferguson said he has never feared for his own life. Wallace, who has dealt mostly with car wrecks, also said he has never been scared while on call.

“I imagine there is something out there that’ll scare me,” Wallace said.

Unlike Wallace and Ferguson, Kneip said being scared is just part of the job.

“If you aren’t scared, you shouldn’t be doing it,” Kneip said, shaking his head.

According to Ferguson, injuries don’t happen often because of state-of-the-art fire prevention technology, but he has had his share of steam burns.

“They hurt worse than any burn I’ve ever experienced,” he said.

As a volunteer firefighter, Wallace listens to scanners in his room at home, so when a call comes across the scanner he can jump in his car and race to the scene to help out.

For Wallace and Ferguson, firefighting is their passion, but neither will continue to pursue firefighting as a career.

Ferguson said he is considering transferring to law enforcement, a transfer that, according to Ferguson, happens “quite often” between the two services.

Kneip, on the other hand, plans to keep fighting fire.

“It’s exciting, sitting around and your pager goes off,” Kneip said. “Being able to control something thats out of control, that’s the best thing.”