In Marthasville, Missouri, the fire department is made up entirely of volunteers. Between its three stations, the department is responsible for covering 168 square miles including surrounding towns like Treloar and Hopewell.
Volunteer fire departments are common in rural communities. In fact, The National Fire Protection Association estimates that 65 percent of the nation’s fire departments are made up of volunteers. Funding for volunteer fire departments is one of the biggest challenges besides managing calls. Marthasville, for example runs off a $300,000 budget, fire chief Jeff Backhaus said. Maintaining a fire truck costs about $35,000 alone, he said.
“The last thing we want is one of our pieces of apparatus not ready to go when an alarm comes in,” Backhaus said.