First Responders Month: Volunteer firefighters look for new recruits, strengthen community bonds

It’s often taken for granted, Cape Girardeau firefighter Chris Miller said, that people can call emergency services for a structure fire and know that a fire engine will soon arrive to extinguish it. For many Americans, especially in more rural areas, that is not always the case. They largely rely on the services of volunteer firefighters.

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, two-thirds of firefighters nationwide are volunteers as of 2022. Miller is among them. Between shifts in Cape Girardeau, he helps respond to emergencies in the East County Fire Protection District.

It is one of 11 different fire districts covering portions of Cape Girardeau County, several of which rely entirely on volunteers to provide aid.

“You do the job mostly for your dedication and you want to help your neighbor, help other people. That’s where the basis of the fire department was started,” Miller’s East County captain David Goehman said.

Department volunteers come from varied backgrounds. Some have previous firefighting experience, others medical experience, and some are farmers from the area. All of them share the goal of protecting their communities from disaster.

“The life of a firefighter is not just the Hollywood movie of fighting a fire. It’s readying the truck. It’s driving the truck. It’s making sure everything is operating smoothly on a fire scene. It’s all about working together,” fire chief Michael Gentry of the Gordonville Fire Protection District said.

The quest for volunteers

Miller had been searching for a volunteer firefighting opportunity since he moved to Cape Girardeau in 2013. East County took him in with open arms.

“I had actually always wanted to be a firefighter since I was in kindergarten. I actually had my kindergarten birthday party at the fire station back home in Kansas City,” he said.

Miller previously volunteered for a fire department in Manhattan, Kansas. He started working at the Cape Girardeau Fire Department in 2017. He works 24-hour shifts, but that allows him to volunteer on the days he has off.

“Volunteerism is down and people are busier than ever, but I’m very thankful that I’m able to help the community this way,” he said. "But in today’s society, it really takes those being off work and available to meet the needs of the community.”

Goehman agreed that recruiting new volunteers is among the more difficult aspects of the position. Many volunteers are often busy with their day jobs or their families and don’t have time to regularly respond to emergencies.

The East County district currently has some 30 volunteers, including members of its junior firefighting program for youths ages 14 to 18. Firefighters visit the Nell Holcomb R-IV School District and Prodigy Leadership Academy within their district to teach students about fire safety and get them interested in becoming volunteers.

They also attend Procter & Gamble family days for recruitment, as that company’s Jackson plant is located within their district.

The Gordonville district faces a similar situation where recruitment and retention are priorities. Gentry said his district offers a fuel stipend, workers compensation, insurance coverage, aid to pay for training and certifications and gear in compliance with the National Fire Protection Association.

“We have about 20, 25 people out here at Gordonville. The volunteer fire service is definitely getting smaller with everybody having busy lives and everything else going on in the community,” he said. “… Most of your volunteer fire departments might get a little bit of a fuel stipend to help run calls but we’re not making a living off of this. That’s where it’s hard.”

Anyone living within the Gordonville district’s 77 square miles can sign up to volunteer, as can people living close to its borders. The same is true of most every volunteer firefighting district: anyone with a will to join, and who lives close enough, can volunteer.

Gentry joined the district his senior year of high school and has been volunteering for more than a dozen years. The Gordonville district had helped his grandfather with a barn fire and it inspired him to want to help his community. He has served as fire chief for the last three years, and in doing so has become part of a network that provides another boost of volunteer service.

Providing aid

Since there are 11 fire districts across Cape Girardeau County, 10 of which are located completely or chiefly within the county lines, they often send mutual aid to assist in emergencies. All the county’s fire chiefs meet monthly and they regularly send assistance to the scenes of emergencies in nearby districts.

While the Gordonville district can receive up to 400 calls a year, and the East County one averages some 350, the number of actual structure fires is usually less than 10 per year. Most calls they respond to are medical emergencies.

“It’s not just responding to calls. We’re one of the only volunteer fire departments in the county that runs ALS [advanced life support] so we have paramedics on our staff,” Gentry said.

Fighting a fire is basically the same regardless of whether its urban or rural, with one exception. Rural districts need to rely on tankers to haul water out to the blaze, since fire hydrants are nonexistent in many such areas. To minimize response time, the Gordonville and East County districts have three stations apiece.

A group of locals founded the East County district in 1981 because the Cape Girardeau fire district could not quickly cover fires that far east. Goehman’s father and grandfather were among them, and volunteering there is commonplace among different families. Some of the original members still volunteer.

“They had basically scrimped and salvaged and worked on all the trucks. Everything like that they possibly could. They had to do everything on their own,” Goehman said.

Back then, the district held raffles, dances and other social events to raise funds to acquire equipment.

He said some older residents of the 71-square-mile district say they can’t fight fires directly, but they are able to help by driving vehicles and organizing emergency responses.

“We need that. If I’ve got a guy that can drive a truck, I can put a younger guy that is able … to fight a fire to do that. I don’t feel like there’s an age requirement for it,” Goehman said.

In addition to water tankers, the districts’ fleets include the customary fire engines, four-by-fours, brush trucks, EMS trucks and other rescue vehicles. But vehicles, equipment, uniforms and the stations themselves are expensive to acquire and maintain.

“I’m always applying to grants to try to find that extra dollar for the community. Our budget is right there where we’re struggling to keep the equipment up to date. Fire service stuff is expensive. For a new turnout coat and pants is around $4,000 and that’s not including the boots and gloves, the tools, the air pack, the radio,” Gentry said.

That’s where the rest of the public come into play.

Community ties

Goehman described the department as family-oriented, with volunteers bringing in wives and kids for events.

“At the end of the day we are all family here and that’s how we want it,” he said.

Ultimately, volunteer firefighting is an endeavor done by a community for a community, and so the firefighters serve a role of bringing people together.

The districts host holiday events, meals and other social gatherings as fundraisers to help them improve their operations.

“It’s always good to welcome the community in to show them what we do and who we are. A lot of those are fundraisers, whether they’re helping us support or public education events or helping us buy new equipment,” Gentry said.

The Gordonville district hosts pancake breakfasts, Halloween bashes and open houses to show off equipment and teach the public about fire safety. These routinely draw hundreds of people.

The firefighters say they are their fellow volunteers form tight-knit groups. Volunteers come and go, but there is no animosity: some move away, others must focus on their jobs or their families more. Life always takes priority.

“We’re all always looking for good people to show up and help volunteer,” Gentry said. “If you’re interested, reach out to your local volunteer fire department.”