Find out why this professional rescuer needed rescuing, and how she now reaches out to help others recover.

Capt. Crystal Rezzonico is back at work at Phoenix Fire Station 60 doing what she loves.

It was just another day in the office for 49-year-old Phoenix Fire Capt. Crystal Rezzonico when – in a split second – she was transformed from a highly trained professional rescuer to a critically injured patient in dire need of being rescued.

“If something like this had to happen,” she said, “I’m so thankful it happened while I was with my crew, just moments away from the John C. Lincoln Trauma Center. I was really blessed.”  She credits her life and her recovery to being in the right place with the right people nearby.

On that day in 2009, the 21-year Fire Department veteran had been doing what she loved, rushing with her crew, sirens blaring, emergency lights blazing, to the aid of others in trouble.

She was belted into in her “office,” the bright red fire engine No. 910 from Station 60, when it was hit. A midsized sedan, traveling almost 70 mph, ran a red light near the Interstate 17 freeway overpass on Dunlap Avenue and hit her passenger door, impaling itself nearly four feet into the massive truck.

The collision forced the fire engine into oncoming lanes of traffic, causing it to strike several vehicles. Rezzonico was one of 14 people injured in the resulting eight-vehicle collision.