Be a Hometown Hero: Volunteer Firefighters

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The fire department is no longer the good-ol'-boy club it was even a few years ago. Women now serve on many departments across the country. And you don't have to dress up like an astronaut, strap on an air pack and crawl into a burning building to belong to the fire department. After all, there are limits to how many people can be on the end of a hose line. But there is no limit to the other work to do around an emergency scene. You can roll hose; set up ladders, lighting and other equipment; or direct traffic. If you're a natural-born driver, consider piloting a pumper, tanker, aerial ladder, heavy rescue truck or an ambulance.

There is no limit to the work around the firehouse, either. Every fire department needs a secretary, treasurer, quartermaster, mechanic, carpenter, painter, historian, photographer, electrician, cook, public spokesperson or fund-raiser. If nothing else, you can give generously when your fire department conducts a fund-raising drive to pay operating expenses or buy new equipment. Saving lives is an expensive business — the cost to train and equip a firefighter is approximately $4,500, according to the NVFC.

Where There's Smoke, There May Not Be Fire

As a volunteer firefighter, you'll learn new, highly marketable job skills in fields as diverse and lucrative as:

*Appliance Repair — You'll troubleshoot 'em all, from burned belts on clothes dryers to broken hoses on washing machines. You'll patch leaky water heaters and quiet backfiring oil burners or water softeners that go klunk! in the night.

*Landscaping — It may be as simple as kicking burning leaves away from the side of a wooden barn, only to learn later that it houses a helicopter and dozens of 55-gallon drums of aviation fuel (proof that there is no such thing as a routine call). Or it may be as strenuous as chainsawing trees knocked down by high winds, lightning or drunk drivers.

*Animal Care — By land, by sea or by air, your mission may be to find three cats in a smoke-filled house (Hint: Look under the bed), rescue baby ducks from a storm drain or pluck a cat from a tree on New Year's Day. ( Is the moon full? )

The middle of an ice storm — with two fire departments already on the way to your home after you've called 911 — is not the time to figure out that the overpowering chemical smell making you sick is coming from the cat's litter box, which hasn't been changed in three months.

"Yes, ma'am. I know the building is full of smoke, but your tropical fish will be just fine. Remember, they're in water."

*Child Care — Sometimes, would-be rescuers wind up in need of rescuing. Witness the 3-year-old with his hand stuck in the videocassette recorder. He was just trying to save his pal Barney from the evil videocassette recorder that swallowed his favorite tape.

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