There are 12 volunteers on the Clinton Township Fire Department roster, but firefighter Dennis Snodgrass remembers the time only two showed up in response to an emergency call.

“Fortunately,” he said, “it was a small grass fire, which we can handle. And we’re in Douglas County, so we can always call other departments for mutual aid.”

The incident illustrated an ongoing challenge for the majority of Douglas County’s fire departments. Most are staffed mainly by volunteers — and there are rarely enough to go around.

“You always need more volunteers,” said Lyle Bowlin, chief of the Willow Springs Township Fire Department. “You don’t know who’s going to be able to respond when. Some of them are on the roster that aren’t real active.”

Only Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical is composed entirely of paid staffers. Wakarusa Township Fire Department has four paid employees, including Chief Rod Brown, but relies on volunteers to complete its mission.

The eight other fire departments — in Baldwin, Eudora and Lecompton, as well as Clinton, Eudora, Kanwaka, Palmyra and Willow Springs townships — rely exclusively on volunteers. There are between one dozen and two dozen on each squad, responding to as many as 200 calls a year.

“These volunteers are today’s true heroes,” Brown said. “Without them, where would our rural fire departments be today?”

It’s not always easy to get all the volunteers to respond to an emergency, the chiefs said, particularly during the daytime hours when people are at work.

“Everybody has jobs, and it’s a come-as-you-can deal,” Snodgrass said. “Every time an alarm goes off, you don’t know how serious it is, so you hope everybody comes, but you’ve got to respect their personal commitments and business commitments.”

Jim Welch, Burlingame, does some routine maintenance on a fire truck at a Wakarusa fire station, where he is a full-time firefighter. Welch also serves as a volunteer firefighter in Osage County.

And in some departments, Brown said, volunteers are building experience they can use to get a paid firefighting position. That leaves the departments always searching for replacements.

“We’re constantly training new recruits,” Brown said.

Aside from a few “adrenaline seekers,” the chiefs said, most volunteers are community-minded residents.

“It’s a good way to give back to the community and help out,” said Chris Lesser, chief of Kanwaka Township Fire Department. “Without the volunteers, there’s nobody to protect your house and family from fire. It’s one way you can protect your own family and property.”

¢ Fire Suppression Resources in Douglas County(This is a portable document file. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.)

Randy Demersseman, chief of Palmyra Township Fire Department, agreed.

“When it comes down to it, there’s no difference in a fire whether it’s being fought by a volunteer or a paid fireman,” he said. “A fire’s a fire.”