Editor’s note: This is the first of an occasional series highlighting people whose lives and careers are dedicated to serving others.

POULSBO — It’s 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning and there’s one thing Travis Beach wants to make clear: “I don’t consider myself a hero.”

Fresh off a 24-hour shift that began at 7:30 a.m. the day before, the firefighter/paramedic is still sporting his uniform as he prepares to head home from the Poulsbo Fire Department headquarters.

“I couldn’t even define what a hero is,” he adds. “But there are great people around me and I aspire to achieve some of the things that they have.”

His assertion comes on the heels of a morning spent discussing the nature of his job, and the emphasis society places on “everyday heroes” like himself. Though he brandishes a humble message, his and the department’s recent saves speak volumes, and make it clear just why Beach and others in the field are so often — and deservedly — illustriously praised.

‘I felt helpless’

Sunday morning epiphanies aren’t unique in themselves, but Beach recalled one he experienced at age 20 that plotted his future career. That morning, while in church, the Wyoming native’s pulpiteer passed out.

“I felt helpless,” he said. “From that point on I did not want to feel that way again around somebody that was hurt.”

Now 36, Beach has been with Poulsbo’s department for nearly a year. He previously served for five years in Mason County. Working 24-hour shifts, he said the department receives anywhere from four to 18 calls a day, many of them pertaining to medical emergencies.

Since April, Beach and the department have lent a helping hand in two noteworthy resuscitations. Both patients made a full recovery after their hearts completely stopped. According to the American Heart Association, the survival rate for adults receiving CPR out of a hospital or medical facility is only 6 percent.

In one of the instances, an 80-year-old man was not breathing and did not have a pulse when responders arrived on scene. PFD paramedics, including Beach, immediately initiated CPR, set up a heart monitor and intubated the patient. The man became responsive and began opening his eyes by the time the ambulance reached Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton. In a statement after the save, Beach said normally patients receive secondary injuries due to lack of oxygenated blood in their brain and kidneys after a heart has been stopped for several minutes.

“To have two patients recently make such full recoveries, even to the point that they can walk in here and shake my hand, is amazing, and incredibly rewarding,” he said.

‘It’s kind of like the weather’

Due to new construction standards and fire prevention programs, the amount of blazes the department battles isn’t too high, Beach said. But calls relating to cardiac and respiratory problems come in, sometimes in large numbers, sometimes not.

“It’s kind of like the weather,” he contended. “Sometimes it’s raining hard and sometimes you sleep.”

But unlike Hollywood heroes, when Poulsbo’s crew isn’t out saving lives, they aren’t “sitting around in recliners, feet up, waiting for a tone.”

“That is the furthest thing from the truth,” Beach said. Days are filled with training, equipment preparation and physical fitness. Downtime does happen, but can be seldom, he said. And when that alarm rings, Beach — who was nicknamed “Turbo” at his first station because of his adrenaline-pumped response to a call — said it’s time to switch gears and get in a ready state of mind.

‘This is a family’

Often when answering calls Poulsbo’s crew is the “middle man” from a crisis situation to a hospital. Seeing a complete recovery — like the two patients resuscitated, or the delivery of a healthy baby — can be rare.

“When you really can make an impact on your patients, it’s very satisfying,” Beach said. And he made it clear it’s a team effort.

“We spend a third of our lives here at work. This is a family. I put my life in my partners’ hands,” he said. “I depend on them for everything.”

Unlike an average office, where employees converse socially, the department’s bonds go deep. Each knows one another’s weaknesses and strengths, and puts trust in their coworkers in dangerous situations. It’s a kinship and a camaraderie Beach said drew him from the start. Now, when he’s caring for a patient in the back of an ambulance and his partner is driving, lights flashing and sirens blaring, he said he puts as much faith in his coworker as the patient does.

And when it comes to being that idyllic role model to young kids, it’s an opportunity Beach said he’ll gladly take.

“If you can have the slightest impact with kids then there’s a part of you that feels that might help to lead them to a good future,” he said. “I guess you just have to be hopeful.”

Aside from his fire fighting family, Beach also has a wife and two sons, ages 2 and 4. For more information about CPR, including where you can learn how to perform it, call the Poulsbo Fire Department at (360) 779-3997 or visit poulsbofire.org.