If all the firemen die, who will fight fires in the future?
If you're in a town of 3,000 people, there are a very limited number of potential firemen you can have. If they die rescuing someone, dozens of others die because there is no one else to rescue them.
In many rural settings there is no dedicated fire department and it all operates on a volunteer basis.
Around harvest time it was expected that the neighbors would have their tractors standing by hooked up with discs to till the crops and build fire lines.
Dedicated fire fighters aren't the only people who can put out fires.
My town doesn't even have dedicated firefighters. Everyone is a volunteer. And the guy saying that they're not a real firefighter unless they choose to die in a structure collapse is sickening to me.