ALEX DALENBERG
Associated Press

GREEN VALLEY, Ariz. - The men of Helmet Peak Volunteer Fire Department sweat out Saturday mornings training in beat-up, hand-me-down turnouts. Their firehouse is a metal awning west of Sahuarita, alongside Mission Road north of Helmet Peak Road. Some are retired firefighters. Some are young guys hoping to sign on to a professional department.

They've got a used firetruck the chief drove clear across the country from the East Coast.

In many ways the whole business looks like a ram-shackle operation, but these guys can take the heat.

And what's more, they're the typical American firefighter. The majority of firefighters in the United States are volunteers - 72 percent, or about 827,000 out of more than 1.1 million firefighters. About 21,200 out of more than 30,000 fire departments are all-volunteer, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

"We're not just a bunch of rednecks," said Cody Baker, a volunteer who lives with his wife and family in a rural neighborhood north of the firehouse.

The department covers about 35 square miles in the area of South Mission and Helmet Peak roads. Its 25 members answer about 130 calls per year, mainly brush fires and emergency services for the sick or injured, said Chief Alan Karnas, who lives at the station in an RV.

Karnas came into the job in 1993, just a year after his father started the department. His son also serves as a volunteer firefighter in the department. The firefighters all meet basic training standards - all volunteer fire departments are required to meet a number of national and state standards, with additional training requirements unique to each department.

"All firefighters are professional, even if they're not paid," said Kimberly Ettinger, a spokeswoman for the National Volunteer Fire Council. "It's not like you just start fighting fires right away."

Helmet Peak's firefighters have all completed basic firefighting courses, many of them through Pima Community College. EMTs meet even more rigorous standards.

"We do everything a firefighter does," Karnas said.

The fire department is funded through a combination of subscriptions, donations, fundraisers and grants and has a budget of about $50,000 per year.

Volunteer fire departments across Arizona are typically run on shoe-string budgets, said Bobby Apodaca, president of the Volunteer Firefighters of Arizona and a volunteer fire chief in Winkleman. He said cash is the main concern facing volunteer fire departments.

"Some of our budgets are very limited. We really rely on grants and stuff like that," he said. "But when you look at the numbers, the money we save the taxpayers (by not having a paid fire department) is tremendous."

There are at least 35 all-volunteer fire departments in Arizona with a number of others having a combination of volunteer and professional services, according to a list compiled by the state Department of Fire, Building and Life Safety.

Even though most calls are routine and few and far between, Karnas said he tries to keep his firefighters prepared for the worst. That means Saturday training sessions are especially important.

"We want to make sure these guys are used to the heat," Karnas said. The department has cobbled together a makeshift training ground outside the station that looks, appropriately, like a disaster area. There's a few blackened, burned-out cars strewn across the dirt field that the department uses to practice vehicle extractions, a torched mobile home for practicing building rescues and a giant water tank turned on its side where the volunteers are practicing fire attacks this particular Saturday.

The volunteers suit up and gather outside the trucks. A few of them prep the hoses, another group piles wood pallets in the back of the water tank and gets ready to light them with a flare.

"It gets pretty hot in there," says volunteer Harvey Chartrand, a retired Green Valley Fire District firefighter.

And it's pretty hot already, with the desert sun beating down and the clock ticking past 11 a.m. and steadily toward noon. Beads of sweat drip down the volunteers faces as they get their marching orders.

"Watch the flames banking over your head. If anybody feels unsafe, go out as a team. What's our number one priority?"

"Safety," the group answers.

The volunteers take turns inching in groups into the water tank, bodies low to keep out of the searing temperatures at the ceiling. They each get a turn at the nozzle. After the exercises, there is a performance review as the chief and his commanders break down tactics and strategy - what went right and what went wrong.

It's hard, sweaty work, but most of the volunteers say they wouldn't have it any other way.

"We love it. That's why we're out here volunteering," said Peter Paddock, who works at a tutor for EMT classes at Pima Community College with his friend and fellow volunteer Jacob Booth.

He and Booth both hope to move on to professional fire departments and are using their volunteer experience

"This helps you stay fresh and keeps you in the community," Booth said.

Firefighter Mike Araiza, who takes night shifts with Helmet Peak and works for La Posada dining services as his day job, said firefighting is exciting.

"I love getting that adrenaline," he said. "Hearing those sirens going. It gets your heart pumping."

"We do it because we love it," Booth said.

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Information from: Green Valley News, http://www.gvnews.com

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