It was supposed to be a routine training session for Tom Albert, who has been fighting fires for 25 years.
Albert and other members of Boulder Fire Rescue were near the area of 17th Street and King Avenue on June 13 to do some wildland fire training.
"We were just going through what we would do in case there was a real fire," Albert said.
But what started out as just a drill turned into a real-life emergency when an accident with a fire hose threw Albert into the air, causing life-altering injuries that Albert has been battling since that day.
Albert returned to light duty last week, but his road to recovery is still a long one.
"I still have a long way to go injury-wise before I can do what I was doing the day before the accident," Albert said. "I'm probably not going to be back until April or May of next year."