PHOENIX — Firefighter/Paramedic Tyler Packer only ever accepts challenges, even ones he sets for himself on the job at Salt River Fire Department.
“If I have to pull a prime then I lost my own personal challenge,” Packer said as he talks to his colleagues at training.
Packer has been in the profession for nine years. He moved to Salt River Fire Department in January 2022.
“If you’re going to give me a challenge, I’ll do it and I’ll prove you wrong by doing it,” Packer said.
About four months into the job on April 8, 2022, he was involved in a life-endangering challenge.
“When I look at stuff, I'm like, ‘I have no idea how I survived that,’” Packer said.
Packer said he doesn’t really remember the day, just pulling up to work. But said he did run a call that morning to go help someone. That afternoon Packer and firefighter Brendan Bessee were on their way to help someone else when they pulled out onto State Route 87 at Center Street.
Bessee was behind the wheel of the ambulance when they collided with a semi-truck. The cab separated from the back of the ambulance in the crash, and Bessee died.
“When I look at those pictures, I’m like, ‘Man, we went through some stuff. This is crazy. I thought - It sounds bad - but I thought I would join you (Bessee),’” Packer said.
Instead, Packer was in a coma for 10 days and in the hospital for more than a month. Packer recalls how he went through months of therapy as he recovered from several injuries, including a brain injury.
“I had to actually ‘relearn’ how to drive,” Packer said.
Packer was cleared for light duty a few months ago, and has been back full-time at Salt River Fire Department for about a month and a half.
"That’s what means more to me than anything else, I’m just happy to be here,” Packer said.
Over the past 10 months, Packer said it’s his wife of more than a year that keeps him going.
“She’s always been the best cheerleader on the side of Team Packer,” Packer said. “And she’s the reason I’m who I am right now.”
Reminders of the challenge of April 8, 2022 still linger, through stickers on Packer’s helmet honoring Bessee, and stickers on every Salt River Fire Department apparatus honoring those who’ve died from the department in the line of duty, including Bessee.
“It’s just a reminder. Yep, stuff happens, just keep living your life day-by-day,” Packer said.
Still, Packer said, he’s looking to the future.
“I feel like it has given me a different perspective on life, because now I had a second chance, so I might as well use it to the best of my ability,” Packer said.
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