When I was in Singapore serving my National Service as a fire fighter I came to face to face with several real incidents to which I've saved lives. The following is one that I will remember for the rest of my life:
Got a call for an apartment unit fire on the 7th floor. Helped some of my colleagues set up the hose lines. Lift was one of those that stopped only on certain floors, this one stopped at the 5th. I ran up 2 floors to the fire and helped to hose the fire down and locate the origin of fire. Searched again for any casualties with my commander and I was the first one to spot a female in her late 30s. I was completely scared stiff as it was my first time seeing an unconcious body (looked pretty dead to me), my commander smacked me across the back of my helmet with a torch and yelled at me to bring her out. Turns out a whole family of 5 was lying there (which was a little bit suspicious). Mum and dad, twin 13 year olds and one 10 year old. I brought out the 10 year old kid, one of the twins, the mum and the dad.
Turns out they all were suffering smoke inhalation from a fire caused by candles being left on the bed. After a few days, we found out that everyone survived except for the dad who died of permanent brain damage due to smoke inhalation. After a few weeks of police investigation, it turned out that the relationship between the mum and dad was completely sour and that the father was the one who caused the fire and wanted to kill his family. So we were told.
I still remember every detail of that night, and I've never felt so accomplished in my life. There are other firefighting stories as well, but none as life impacting as that one.