For the past 13 years, Mark Johnson has been Forest City's fire chief. However, for the past 33 years, he has put out many fires, aided in rescues and mentored young firefighters. Johnson, and all those respond instantly to the sound of an alarm, said they do it because they love it. In larger cities fighting fires is a career, a full-time paid job. “Here, we're all volunteer. We all have full time jobs and our employers are all willing to let us go during work hours,” Johnson said. “We are on call 24 hours, seven days a week.” And the monetary award is a $10 stipend per call, or as Johnson puts it, “some pretty nice Christmas cash at the end of the year.” Why do the men and women of Forest City and other small towns put in the training, the time and the risk?