Well, today I finally sat at work and found some words to explain my feelings. In my thirteen years of volunteering, the service has changed so much in so many different ways.

It’s lengthy, but to anyone volunteering in emergency services, this will hit home.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been asking myself if people truly realize how blessed some cities are to have a paid fire department or rescue squad. Volunteer firefighting is disappearing, little by little, every day across the nation. People simply don’t wanna do it anymore.
Communities expect firefighters to give, give, and give — because somewhere along the way it became normal to believe the job shouldn’t be paid.
Picture this: it’s 2:00 AM. You’ve worked your full-time job all day. You have a newborn at home and a spouse who’s exhausted and upset because you’ve barely been there. You’ve been asleep for what feels like five minutes when the tones drop. The radio wakes the whole house. Baby crying. Spouse frustrated. Your eyes burn, but you get up anyway.
You throw your clothes on and run out the door like it’s your own house on fire — because seconds matter. You drive your personal vehicle, on your own gas, eight minutes down the road to the station. You pull on your turnout gear, climb into the truck, and head toward the scene.
On the way, something sinks in your stomach — you’re the only one responding.
You ask dispatch to page it out again, just hoping for one more set of hands.
Silence.
Fifteen minutes later, you arrive to heavy smoke and fire showing from the front of the house. A woman stands in the yard — half-dressed, barefoot, frantic — because her husband of 40 years never made it out after going back in for the family pet.
You’re one person.
You call for mutual aid. The nearest department is 20–25 minutes away on a good night, and even then you might only get two more people — people who care deeply, but whose bodies just can’t keep up anymore.
Now you’re alone — running the pump, checking for hazards, stretching lines, and trying everything in you to fight a house fire by yourself. You’re carrying 85 pounds of gear, an SCBA, tools, and a charged hose line across the yard. You try to push inside, but the heat is overwhelming. You need another line. You need backup.
You don’t have either.
The truth is, the closest help might still be 25 minutes away — if it’s coming.
You want to go inside more than anything — to reach the husband, the father, the papaw, a man who is everything to his family — but you can’t.
You’re there for hours — fatigued, mentally broken — beating yourself up for not being able to get there quicker. You ask yourself if you could’ve done something different to change the outcome. But there’s no time for that. It’s 7 AM, and you have to be at your full-time job at 8.
This is the reality people don’t see when they say firefighters shouldn’t be paid — when they forget that behind the sirens are human beings with families, fatigue, fear, and hearts that keep showing up anyway.
Volunteer firefighting is a calling that is quickly diminishing not only across Eastern Kentucky, but across the United States as a whole. The men and women in your communities give their whole lives to serve and expect nothing in return.
Support your local fire departments. If your community is fortunate enough to have a paid and fully staffed department, you are blessed with firefighters and rescue personnel who can respond immediately — rested, trained, and ready around the clock. Paid staffing means faster response times, more firefighters arriving together, quicker and more efficient rescues, and better protection for both citizens and firefighters. Advocate for funding, training, and adequate staffing so departments can put enough boots on the ground when seconds matter. Thank them while they’re still here to hear it, and teach your children that service matters — and that the people who run toward danger deserve real support, not just words.
Because without community support, there will come a night when no one is left to answer them tones.
-Brandon Adams-
Volunteer Firefighter