GUNNISON, Utah — Who responds if there's a fire where you live or work?
You may picture a city fire station. Professionals working a multi-day shift, ready to run to the garage and hop in a fire truck, engine, or ambulance in seconds.
Outside of our biggest cities, that's not how it works. It's your neighbor hopping in their car.
Someone like Zack Jensen, who is the volunteer Assistant Fire Chief for Gunnison Valley Fire.
"We go through a lot of the same things, learning all the things that they learn," Jensen explained. "It takes 160 hours of volunteer time to get that certification. But we go through it, and we do it. And we have the capabilities, maybe not the experience, but we have the capabilities and the training to help us get through it just like they do."
That's important to know. Volunteers are trained and capable, but they earn their living elsewhere, and sometimes that means they don't have enough people.
"There's always the rollercoaster ride of how many members you have," explained Jensen. "There's times where we're shorthanded with members, and so there's very few people that will come on calls at times. That's what really becomes difficult, is keeping up with rules and regulations as a small volunteer department."
It's a big deal all over the state, as Utah has 29 counties and only 10 have even one department that's all or mostly professional. If you live or regularly visit the other 19, you are relying on volunteers for every call.
Even in Utah's big six counties, it's only in Salt Lake where a majority of departments are all or mostly professional.
Jensen says volunteering makes his life better from the camaraderie, and more meaningful from the work itself.
"There's an enjoyment that comes from volunteering and giving back to your community," he said. "It's hard to understand it when you haven't done it. But once you do it, the feelings and the emotions that come from it are second to none. They really are. You feel, you feel good, knowing that you've done what you can to help people in any aspect of it."
