Imagine working 40 hours a week or more, then spending dozens more hours training to run the pump on a fire truck.
Or consider raising a family, taking kids to soccer practice, going to church and then getting up at 3 a.m. to respond to a horrible car crash.
All that sounds like a staggering burden.
But it is the typical life of an Iowa volunteer firefighter.
Volunteer firefighters are a unique and dedicated bunch who live a full life doing everything that their neighbors do at work and with their families, but then spend more time risking their lives to protect their communities.
Today's volunteer firefighters are unpaid professionals. And while they don't respond to as many fires or emergencies as their paid colleagues in bigger cities, every call they respond to is just as dangerous as those faced by the professional firefighters in places like New York City and Los Angeles.
In Iowa there are 600 to 700 fie departments, and just 40 them are paid, career departments.