Citizens volunteering to respond to fires in their community began in 1736 when one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin began the first volunteer fire department in Philadelphia. Their equipment consisted of leather buckets for dousing flames with water and linen bags to quickly remove salvageable belongings from the burning buildings. These men started a vital thread of our American culture where you improve yourself by improving your community.

Our nation has 1,115,000 active firefighting personnel, 87% are volunteer. Georgia has 463 fire departments and 75% of those are volunteer. Yet, while the populations and call volume are increasing (triple over the past 30 years); the numbers of volunteers are decreasing (11% in the same time frame).

Monroe County has 13 fire stations around the county all utilized by volunteer members with 4 stations having full-time personnel and 5 additional stations that are staffed with part-time personnel as available. I’m going to be honest, we have several stations with only 1-2 volunteers period. Our numbers have dwindled, and I get it. The necessity of 2-income households, traveling all over mid-Georgia to take kids to their activities…life is busy. The once iconic membership is not as easily managed as it once was. The commitment to train and be involved is not for the indifferent. But, it is necessary.

We need volunteers. We need you!

Understanding that our daily workloads and commitments are different than they were just 15 years ago, getting new members trained to safely do their duty has also changed. Instead of needing to commit 400 hours in a classroom environment, we will begin in the next few months a class that is combined on-line and in person to go over content, mastery, and skills practice.

I will say it again, WE NEED YOU! YOUR NEIGHBORS NEED YOU! Every one of our current members have 1-2 jobs, families, commute over an hour away to work...but we are a family. We are a dedicated group that answers the call of our neighbors when they need help.

Please submit your application ASAP so you can be ready to start the class! I can promise new friendships, a lifelong brotherhood/sisterhood, community pride, family pride in you, fun, and knowledge & skills in construction, fire behavior, machinery, tools, and more! We hope to see your application soon! Get started today at: WWW.MCESVOLUNTEER.COM