There are many people or groups of people that I consider heroes. I believe doctors are heroes, nurses are heroes, soldiers are heroes, cops are heroes, and the list goes on. There is one thing that these heroes I have listed have in common: they are paid to be heroes. Now, of course that is not why they do it, in order to have a job like this you must have a drive to be a hero and to put the lives of others before your own. Volunteer firefighters take time out of their daily lives to save others--without being paid.

While the jobs of paid and volunteer firefighters are extremely similar, in other ways they greatly differ. Paid firefighters have a schedule, they get paid for each shift. Volunteer firefighters do not have a schedule, when there is a call--whether it is an alarm system, an actual fire, an accident or something out of the ordinary--these men and women must respond. Let’s put this into perspective. Instead of sleeping in until 10 AM on a Sunday and being waken up by your dog and the smell of bacon and eggs cooking in the kitchen, when there is a fire in the community you wake up to the sound of a pager at 4 AM or whatever ungodly time an alarm system decides to go off, throw on whatever pair of shoes is closest to you, get in your car and drive to the station. Instead of watching a movie all of the way through on a Friday night with your family, you either miss half of the movie or are interrupted and have to pause it because your pager went off for an alarm system.

These men and women take time away from their families to serve and protect yours.

And the thing is--I do not think people realize how much volunteer firefighters do. Sometimes there are multiple calls in one day--or even in one hour. Sometimes these calls last 15 minutes, sometimes they last 3 hours. 3 hours that these heroes could be sleeping, 3 hours that these heroes could be playing with their kids, all after a long day of work--or even school. And I must mention that they are required to go to various training's and have multiple certifications. And I must emphasize the fact that some of the things that these men and women see are brutal and may take an emotional toll on them.

This certainly does not mean that what paid firefighters do is not enough or as admirable as what volunteer firefighters do. However, people must realize that ordinary people like you and me do these honorable things and do not get paid for it.

With that being said, next time you see a volunteer firefighter--whether it is on a firetruck around Christmas time driving with Santa Claus, in your local Memorial Day or Fourth of July Parade, or in your neighborhood putting out a fire, make sure you say "thank you."