Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, and smoke and flames were not the only dangers firefighters faced in the days following the verdict in the Rodney King trial.
Firefighters had objects thrown at them and even became targets of gunfire, according to KABC-TV
Capt. Scott Miller was at the wheel of a ladder truck driving from one fire to another when he was shot in the right cheek by a motorist.
"The bullet traveled along my jaw and went into my neck and severed my carotid artery and lodged midline in my throat," he said. "At that point I suffered a stroke and went face first onto the steering wheel."
While he recovered from the incident, he never returned to firefighting.
"After about two years of doing everything in my power to make that happen, I had to accept the reality that that was just not in my future," he said.
More than 3,000 fires were set, damaging or destroying more than 1,500 buildings over the six-day span during the violence that left 55 people dead and another 2,300 injured.
