VOLUNTEERS BATTLE MOST FIRES

MARBLE HILL -- Calvin Troxell has spent about 20 years running off at a moment's notice, day or night, to battle with intense heat, smoke and sometimes death. He still remembers a 4-year-old girl whose body he discovered after a fire.

"To this day I can still picture her face," said Troxell, assistant fire chief for Marble Hill. "She would have been 17 this year, the same age as my daughter."

For all this, Troxell has never been paid a nickel. But he has spent a few thousand dollars doing it.

This is the same for most firefighters, who like Troxell, are volunteers.

About 85 percent of all fire departments in the United States are comprised of volunteers, said James D. Bollinger, a member of the Missouri Fire Safety Advisory Board and Marble Hill fire chief for 25 years.

"The only difference between paid firemen and unpaid ones is they sleep in the firehouse and we don't," Bollinger said. "The fire never asks whether you're a volunteer or paid."

Training and gear for volunteers and paid firefighters are usually equal, said Les Crump, who has worked at volunteer departments for 38 years.

"With full-time firefighters, the response time is a little better since they are already there with the truck," said Crump, assistant fire chief in Jackson. "But as far as training and people, volunteer departments are just as good."

But it wasn't always the case.

When Bollinger first came to Marble Hill, a siren would sound from the sheriff's department alerting volunteers to a fire.

"The physical part was the only thing they trained for then, and that was true for the whole region," Bollinger said. "For all practical purposes, they had no training."

When Crump began working in Scott City, fighting fire meant breaking windows and shooting water.

Now volunteer firefighters respond to beepers, and know to cover furniture with tarps on the first floor before shooting water on the second to prevent water damage.

And understanding when to break windows is important, too, Bollinger said.

He recalled an office fire where his firefighters brought in fans before breaking windows so smoke would not damage computers.

"We're making more of an effort to try and conserve property now," Crump said.

Increased training opportunities have made the most difference. Two statewide training schools are conducted annually, one in Columbia and the other in Jefferson City. About two-thirds of the 4,000 or so who attend are volunteers, Bollinger said. Regional training schools are also offered, with the largest coming up this fall in Cape Girardeau.

Nevertheless, Missouri sets minimal standards for firefighters. Twenty-four hours of training with an air tank and "efficient" handling of hazardous materials is all the state asks, Bollinger said.

"But there is a question of liability under civil law," he said. "A firefighter without training makes a mistake at a fire and he might be sued."

For the most part, fire departments maintain their own standards. Firefighters in Oran must complete 176 hours of classroom training within their first two years to continue, said Mike Ramsey, fire chief. Along with homework and field training, it amounts to more than 300 hours, he said.

"You have to give these guys credit since they are paying to go to these training schools out of their own pockets," Crump said. "This is not their livelihood, either. They work somewhere else eight hours a day."

Before Ramsey handles his chores in Oran, he reports to the Cape Girardeau Fire Department, where he is paid to fight fires.

Several other volunteers also work as paid firefighters, he said.

"It makes a lot of demands on your life," said Ramsey, who averages 56 hours with Cape Girardeau a week and an hour a day in Oran. "A lot of people can't stick with the volunteers."

Recruitment and retention are the two largest problems volunteer departments have now, Troxell said. Many see no profit in being a volunteer, he said.

The expenses are quite visable. Equipment like a blue light and siren cost $500, and a mobile radio system is between $1,200 and $1,500, Bollinger said. Helmets, gloves and other gear are usually supplied by the departments, he said.

Volunteer departments try to economize on trucks.

"When a new truck costs $125,000, that presses us into the used market," Bollinger said.

This means trips made on volunteers' own time to New York, North Carolina and other locations with second-hand dealers.

No one buys a truck they haven't seen, Troxell said.

The need for upkeep on equipment takes up the same amount of time whether firefighters are paid or not, Crump said. The 16 volunteers who work alongside 10 full-time firefighters in Jackson are assigned weekly maintenance duties, he said.

"It used to be a volunteer would go into the station, wipe down the truck with a dry rag and get out the checkerboard," said Crump, who has been assistant chief in Jackson since March. "You don't see that anymore."

Jackson's paid, on-call volunteers earn about $70 a month, so they don't supplement their incomes by firefighting, Crump said.

The reason why many volunteers don't become full-time firefighters is money, Troxell said. He has worked for several years at his present job, and taking a salary cut to fight fires for pay would be hard on his family.

"With my experience I could become a chief at a moderate-sized department, but they usually want to start you out at the bottom of the ladder," he said.

Besides, Troxell's volunteer work does have rewards. After coming back from the sheriff's office, he showed off a fireman's coffee mug with a gracious inscription that someone bought for him.

"That's my pay," Troxell said.