Scenes like this play out daily in small villages and towns across the country. Lacking the tax base and population to support a paid fire department, these communities depend on all-volunteer fire departments and rescue squads to provide vital fire prevention and life saving services. These organizations are living proof that volunteerism is alive, if not completely well, in a world that shows no sign of slowing down.

I’ve asked myself time and again why I volunteer with the Katonah Fire Department. After all, I have two children, my wife and I both w ork, our weekends are filled with activities and errands galore, and more often then not, we find ourselves wondering when we’ll have a chance to have any down time whatsoever. Yet after eight years, I find that volunteering still gives me a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that’s hard to find today.

Katonah Fire Department is one of three all-volunteer departments that serve the town of Bedford, N.Y. Bedford, in northern Westchester County, is home to thousands of hard-working people—from business executives who commute to jobs in New York City to small business owners whose establishments line the quaint sidewalks of Bedford’s attractive main streets. Although predominantly middle class, there’s ample evidence of wealth in the area as well. In fact, the Katonah Fire District provides protection to the homes of Ralph Lauren, financier George Soros, Seagram’s mogul Edgar Bronfman, and our newest celebrity resident, Martha Stewart.

I married into the volunteer culture when I met my wife. Her father and uncle are both volunteers in the Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. volunteer fire department, and I found myself drawn to the excitement of firefighting after hearing their stories. Alex and I both thought joining Katonah Fire Department would be a great way to meet people and find a niche in our adopted community. To a large extent, this has happened.

The fire house becomes a focal point for numerous social events—children’s holiday party, our annual carnival fund-raiser, and open house during Fire Prevention Week, to name a few.

But there are also incredible demands on time for those who decide to volunteer. I went through three months of intense training when I first joined the department. This involved going to class after work two or three times a week, from 7-10:30 p.m., to learn the essentials of firefighting—first aid and CPR, wearing an air pack in a confined space (if you have claustrophobia, this will either cure it or make it worse), handling a charged hose line, using an ax properly, climbing an extension ladder (yes, you CAN fall off if you’re not careful), crawling through smoke-filled rooms to locate victims, and breaking down a jammed door.

Following graduation from the state-mandated “essentials” training, there are twice-monthly drills, monthly meetings, and additional state-sponsored classes. Before we started a family, I attended quite a few of these classes. Now, I manage to make the drills to keep my firematic skills sharp, and I regularly renew my advanced first aid, figuring it’s a useful skill to have with two small children ruling our house. I also took a driver training course so I could drive our apparatus.

Then there’s being on call. Each member gets a small pager which after awhile becomes as much a part of the wardrobe as shirts and pants. When the pagers are set off, a rapid series of loud tones sound, followed by the dispatch. You can’t control the volume of the tones—they go off at the same ear-piercing volume no matter what.

Response varies depending on the department. In Katonah, one of three chiefs (or sometimes, all three) respond directly to the scene in their official vehicles. Members go to the firehouse, get dressed in their gear, and then get on the trucks.

Depending on the type of alarm, we’ll respond with pumpers, a tanker truck and/or a heavy rescue truck. Because two-thirds of Katonah is located outside of the town water system (hence no fire hydrants) all of our apparatus, except for our heavy rescue truck, carry water. Each of our three pumpers carry 750 gallons. Our brush truck carries 250 gallons, and our tanker carries 2,500 gallons. It sounds like a lot until you realize that one car fire can use up an entire 750 gallons of water. A major house fire requires all of our carried water, plus shuttles of tanker trucks from neighboring departments. In addition, we drill constantly on setting up drafting operations from nearby swimming pools and lakes.