For men and women who generally don't get paid for what they do, volunteer firefighters give a whole lot to their respective communities.

Most of this area's volunteer firefighters in the country's 10 departments have full-time jobs. They leave those jobs when they're called to a fire, or a traffic wreck, or to help search for a lost child or adult.

It actually costs them to be a firefighter. When they're called out, they lose time on the job, and some lose the money they'd make had they been at work. It can cost a firefighter more money if he or she is hurt at a fire. In the event a firefighter is killed in the line of duty, a federal fund allows for payment of a lump sum amount to his next of kin. Fortunately, no such payment has ever been made in this county, the official said.

A few firefighters draw a small monthly amount for their administrative duties. That money isn't nearly enough to pay the costs of leaving their job when fire strikes. No one goes into firefighting for the money.

Firefighters may be called any time of the day or night, any time of the year, in broiling sun or freezing drizzle.

It's no job for the physically or emotionally fragile. Firemen may get smoke in their lungs, or pass out from heat exhaustion brought on by heavy protective clothing. They haul heavy hoses, and sometimes use axes and pokers to cut and tear and chop to get at a fire.

Anyone who has ever seen their house catch fire, and seen firemen show up fast enough to save it, is grateful these men and women do what they do.

Any homeowner who has seen grassfire sweeping towards his house, with only a thin line of firefighters manning hoses and tractors between the house and the oncoming flames, is grateful.

Anyone who has ever been in a traffic crash, in pain and pinned inside the tangled wreckage, watching firefighters pull and cut and pry twisted metal, working their way toward extricating the victim, is grateful.

And any parent who has ever seen firefighters search for a missing child is grateful.

All of us should be grateful to have these men and women serving us.