Sue, I've been a vol nozzlehead since my senior year of high school back in 1990. Back then the only required training for my dept was the Essentials of Firefighting. About 120 hours or so. Every Saturday for 3 months. Now we require the Firefighter 1 national certification. I was able to challenge the test and get my cert that way. Nowadays, between working two jobs and raising three daughters with my Wife there is no way I could do it. As it is, with 35 members, we get about 4 or 5 for a daytime call. We have partnered with the other two vol depts for automatic mutual aid. We get a daytime call now we know we are going to get at least 2 engines and a tower, with the crews to staff them. We train together several times a year and frankly most of our structure fire calls come in the other areas.
I do sometimes think of giving it up, but I'm just not ready.