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Farmers serve on the fire lineFarmers serve on the fire line

Rural volunteer firefighters and EMTs serve and protect their neighbors at their darkest hours.

January 24, 2025

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 a crew with the Kansas fire mitigation project at Sand Hills State Park conducts training

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TRAINING: Volunteer fire departments are responsible for keeping their crews trained. In this file photo, a crew with the Kansas fire mitigation project at Sand Hills State Park conducts trainingCourtesy of the Kansas State Research and Extension News Service

By Sophie Varner

In the heart of rural communities are groups of individuals who serve their country as farmers and ranchers and serve their neighbors as volunteer first responders.

One of those volunteers is Clint Hornberger of Baldwin City, Kan., who balances a family cow-calf operation with his volunteer work as a Douglas County firefighter and emergency medical technician. It’s a position that can call at all hours of the day, he says. But it’s worth it to help a neighbor in need.

“When I was growing up, my dad was a volunteer in the same department I am now,” Hornberger says. “So, I kind of grew up around it.” When the volunteer fire department chief — who he also sees at church on Sundays — approached him, it was a simple choice to join. But then he saw a need for EMT support in his county, so Hornberger went a step further.

“I found a night EMT class for a semester and became an EMT,” Hornberger said. He now has served for 19 years in the Douglas County Volunteer Fire Department and 12 years as a volunteer EMT.

Chance Shields, a cattle producer from Okemah, Okla., is another who answered the call to serve. The now-retired volunteer firefighter says it was the leadership and service with friends that inspired him to serve.

“Some of my friends were joining, and I thought it would be cool,” Shields says. After an interview and routine tests, he joined the Bristow Volunteer Fire Department. Years later, he moved and transferred to the Okemah Volunteer Fire Department.

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Jeremy Wilhite is an Arkansas cow-calf producer and Chance Community Volunteer Fire Department assistant chief. He found proximity to be the primary factor when choosing how he would serve his community.

“The fire department was about a mile and a half from my house,” Wilhite says. “I wanted to give back to the community somehow, and that was the only way I knew how to.” Wilhite has now served 11 years as a volunteer firefighter.

Special skills

Some volunteers say their background in agriculture provides a unique perspective and upper hand when responding to emergencies, Hornberger says. For example, experience in controlled burning, although scary to some, creates a respect for fire many cannot explain, he adds.

“I know what [devastation] it can do,” Hornberger says, “but I also know what good it can do.”

Working on firefighting equipment and machinery is made easier with a lifetime of on-the-farm equipment maintenance experience, Wilhite says.

“It helps with knowing how the equipment runs, taking care of it and keeping it lasting longer,” Wilhite says. “It’s all state paid for, so we don’t want to waste taxpayers’ money.”

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Agriculture is opening doors to the next generation of volunteer firefighters as well, Hornberger says.

“I see [agriculture] in the fire service as the next generation is coming along,” Hornberger says. “The agriculture kids, whether they grew up on a traditional farm or were in the FFA, they come into the fire service with a leg up. They know how to run machinery and operate tools. On the EMS side, a little blood doesn’t scare them.”

Training

Each state adopts its own training requirements for volunteer first responders, according to the National Volunteer Fire Council. 

For example, in Kansas, initial training for Hornberger consisted of on-the-job experience, he says. After a year and a half, he attended a fire academy, where he earned his certificates in fire training.

“That really piqued my interest,” Hornberger says. “Some of the instructors impressed upon me the importance of training and the severity of the job. It has the potential, if we don’t know what we’re doing, to be deadly. Good training and an attitude of continual learning can help you become an old firefighter.”

As for Shields, in Oklahoma, both departments he served had weekly and monthly training in first responding, he says.

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And in Arkansas, after he joined the Chance Volunteer Fire Department, Wilhite attended optional courses for fire training, CPR and more, he says. However, no training is required, Wilhite adds.

“It’s just, ‘Here is a hose. Here is a flame. Now, put it out,’” Wilhite says. “They teach you how to do some stuff and how to keep your butt alive, but for the most part, the requirements aren’t the same for a paid [firefighter] versus a volunteer [firefighter].”

Emergency response

It can be difficult to balance full-time careers, farming and volunteer first responding, Hornberger warns.

“It is a really tricky balance of which one needs to come first,” he says. “A lot of the time with fire, we drop what we are doing and go at a moment’s notice. But there are times when, unfortunately, the farm must come first.”

Shields agrees, saying as far as personal responsibilities, many had to be ignored as a volunteer. “Your stuff went on the backburner a lot,” he adds.

Hornberger says volunteering requires sacrifices, and as an EMT, first responding brings challenges of its own.

“It’s a question I don’t think gets talked about a whole lot in the fire service, especially volunteer,” Hornberger says. “It may mean walking out of a family dinner, being late to a kid’s ballgame or leaving a kid’s game early.

“So, it’s almost more of a sacrifice to our families than us because we know what we signed up for.”

The three agree that being a first responder also means handling the emotional toll of what you find at a scene. And volunteers have to find their own ways of coping. Each emergency is different, every fire must be fought differently, and all patients have their own stories, Wilhite adds.

“We see things a lot of people don’t see, and we see it a lot,” Hornberger says.

“You leave what you see on scene,” Shields advises. “When you leave that scene, you leave it all there.”

Neighbors helping neighbors

Volunteer first responders, at the core, are neighbors helping neighbors at the most trying time of their lives. Shields says that for him, the most rewarding aspect of the job is seeing the relief in people’s eyes when they recognize someone is there to help. Hornberger agrees that the most impactful reward comes from recognizing that your service helps people on one of their worst days.

“It may not be the worst day, but it is definitely not one of the better days,” Hornberger says. And for the volunteer first responder, there can be lingering feelings around that call. Focusing on the small victories helps volunteer first responders manage the weight of emergency calls, Hornberger advises.

“I was able to be there and provide care,” Hornberger says. “And they were able to go and hug their wife later that day. So, the rewards are there. You just have to keep looking for them.”

Answer the call

In some locales, rural volunteer emergency departments are the only first responders in the county. And they’re facing a shortage of volunteers and resources. The National Volunteer Fire Council says that in 2024, of the estimated 16,000 firefighters in Kansas, all but about 3,000 are volunteers.

“I have traveled the state extensively, and there is not a single volunteer department in Kansas that is not looking for people,” Hornberger says. There are many reasons for this shortage, from volunteers retiring and aging out of the work to careers that don’t allow the time off to respond to calls and challenges in recruiting younger volunteers.

With volunteer departments answering more calls, that also puts a strain on resources. From funds to maintain and replace older equipment to paying for training and purchasing updated equipment, there’s not a department that couldn’t use community support.

“Many of the departments could also use help in ways that aren’t necessarily responding,” Hornberger says. “So, that could be administrative help or maybe they need someone who is a good mechanic to help work on equipment.

“If you feel compelled to help in some way, reach out to your local volunteer fire department. You may be able to contribute in some way to help your community.”

Varner, of Bristow, Okla., is a junior in agricultural communications and agribusiness at Oklahoma State University. In 2024, Kansas Farmer collaborated with the OSU feature-writing course to encourage talented student writers, and this is one of three articles Varner produced for that effort.

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