Andrew Mollenbeck, wtop.com

WASHINGTON — A D.C. firefighter who sustained second- and third-degree burns while responding to an arson fire has returned to work.

“This is what I do. This is what I know. It’s the greatest job in the world,” says Chuck Ryan, straight off his first call out Wednesday morning.

Ryan was injured while fighting a fire at a house on 48th Place in Northeast on April 8. He almost lost four fingers, and underwent a number of surgeries while hospitalized for seven weeks. Other firefighters were also injured in the fire, but Ryan injuries were the most extensive.

“They weren’t even sure I was going to make it through the night,” Ryan says.

“They contacted my wife and had my wife and my children come to the hospital to prepare them for the worst,” he says.

Throughout the recovery process, he has made returning to work the objective.

“I had set a goal in my mind and said I would hopefully be back at work by Jan. 1, and actually by some hard work and some good doctors and nurses, here I am,” he says.

A man pleaded guilty last week to setting the fire on 48th Place, as well as other fires in the Washington area.

On his first day back, Ryan had little time to take in the balloons, signs and cake at the firehouse before responding to his first call.

He wasn’t nervous.

“There’s no difference. I still got a job to do,” he says.

“I come to work, and I got to do my job to protect and serve the citizens of the District of Columbia and their visitors.”

Follow WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)