Even when many of our fire departments are able to provide 24-hour, 7 day per week on-duty coverage, there is still a need for volunteer firefighters. One reason is that during weekday/daytime hours, when most current volunteers are at their jobs, a major incident such as a residential fire or multi-vehicle accident requiring extrication can serve to tax the 3 or 4-person paid crew on duty. Another reason is that it is extremely difficult to predict how many volunteers will be in the area and available for any given major incident; it is always better to have more qualified volunteers in the queue for a response.

Firefighter volunteers should be residents of the fire protection district that they are serving (so that they are in good physical proximity to respond to calls), be at least 18 years of age, be in generally good physical condition, and be willing and able to attend regular ongoing training sessions, usually a couple of nights per month. They should also be willing to respond to pager calls on a demand basis whenever they are in the area and be able to assist in the call types for which they are qualified.

Please help if you can! Except for St. Charles City, Central County, and Cottleville, each of the fire departments listed on the Departments page of this website still depends to some degree upon volunteer resources for incident response. If you meet the criteria above and have interest in serving, please call the district in which you reside, and ask to speak with the Chief.