Thanks to the Wakarusa Township Fire Department, Nathan Jamison has a new home.

Jamison, 20, is the first volunteer who will be living in Wakarusa Township’s Station No. 2 at 1230 N. opened Saturday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by about 50 people.

In a unique set-up for a volunteer fire department, Jamison will be given room and board in exchange for being an on-call volunteer at the station. It’s the perfect situation for an aspiring firefighter.

“My ultimate goal is to get paid for what I’m volunteering to do,” he said.

Jamison has been a volunteer firefighter for two years and recently was selected the 2001 Wakarusa Township firefighter of the year. He grew up in rural Douglas County and hopes to work for the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Department.

“I just enjoy helping out people,” he said. “The one thing I like about it is it doesn’t seem like you’re doing the same thing all day long. You’re always going to be training, and you’re always going to be on a call.”

The new station will decrease response time to the northern section of Wakarusa Township from 16 or 18 minutes to about six or eight minutes, Fire Chief Rod Brown said. Last year, the township responded to about 160 calls.

“The reason we’re here is to serve the community up on this end,” he said.

Brown is hoping to find two more volunteers who will take up his offer of free room and board in exchange for living at the station and keeping it manned when they aren’t working their regular jobs. He said the free room and board concept is used by volunteer fire departments on both coasts but is rare in the Midwest.

“A lot of townships will be watching this station very closely,” he said.

In the process, Brown figures he’ll save about $66,000 a year or the cost of three first-year salaries. He’ll also be training future firefighters.

“Once they get their certification, they’re a marketable item to a larger department like Lawrence,” Brown said.

But for now, Jamison has his own kitchen, laundry and living room.

Jamison said the free room and board was “a huge bonus.”

“You’re basically living in a fire station, so you’ll get a lot of experience,” he said.