Wanted: a few good men and women.

Age: 18-44 or so. Willing: to work long hours for little or no pay.

Routinely: put your life on the line.

If you have what it takes and can last 10 years before retiring, you will receive a monthly check that will be enough to fill your vehicle’s tank maybe three times each month, depending on the price of gasoline.

Compensation: eternal gratitude and respect from the community and the knowledge within your heart that you are dedicating a part of your life to something more important than financial rewards.

The Eufaula Volunteer Fire Department, currently with 16 volunteers, is understaffed.

“We have slots for 25,” said Fire Chief Chad French, himself a volunteer.

Being short-handed makes a difficult job even more difficult.

“We’re not desperate, but any time you have a fire, and you depend on volunteers, you may get about half your people or less, depending on if it’s a workday. The more volunteers you have the greater the odds of getting more people to respond,” he said.

Two women are among the 16 firefighters, most of whom are employed in a variety of occupations during the day.

Truck drivers. Business owners and managers. Police officers. Maintenance. Council members.

“There’s an array. You name it,” French said.

One thing they have in common is a desire to help the community, to serve a vital role in safeguarding family, friends and neighbors.

Another thing in common is uncommon valor, willingly dropping what they’re doing in their everyday routines when the alarm sounds and rushing to an unknown fate.

Every call isn’t a lifeor-death situation. Sometimes the volunteers are called out to help control traffic or to use the jaws of life to free someone caught in a mangled vehicle at the site of an accident.

Eufaula is a small community, so it isn’t unusual for volunteers to respond to an emergency and discover the person, or persons, is a friend, neighbor, relative or someone you know about.

French says he warns new volunteers about what to expect.

Dead people. People with missing limbs. Mangled bodies.

Seeing the stomachchurning scenes is even more upsetting when you know the person.

“You have to be mentally prepared for what you may see,” he said.

Some volunteers don’t last long on the job. Some apply, but never show up.

Those that do show up and stay are special.

They join a fraternity of special people and form a family who have shared experiences and can relate to each other’s stress.

On occasion, a volunteer may move on to a larger department in a city that pays their firefighters.

But most remain with the local department, fulfilling their desire to serve their community while pursuing their individual career goals.

French prefers volunteers with experience, but a lack of experience shouldn’t stop one from applying.

He’s looking for people with the heart and the stomach to do what has to be done.

“When they first begin, they’re on a year’s probation. Before they can drive any equipment, they go through a training program provided by Oklahoma State University. Then they have to pass a driving test and then a senior firefighter will ride with them for a while,” French said.

Much of the firefighting training is OJT, but there are also training classes offered by OSU from time to time.

The training is very important. Classes are held at every opportunity, sometimes offered by other departments in the area.

“We just attended a Wildland Fire Training class down in Canadian in Pittsburg County,” French said.

He tries to have the classes in Eufaula rather than sending the volunteers to distant locations for the training.

In the course of fighting fires, volunteers already give up time that would be spent with family and friends. Having them travel long distances during their time off adds to the stress of the job.

Hiring a volunteer doesn’t come cheap.

“It costs about $5,000 to gear them out,” French said.

The department pays for the uniforms, as well as training.

Since this is a volunteer fire department, the firefighters receive no pay.

The department participates in the city’s pension system.

“Volunteers become vested after 10 years,” he said.

Retirement amounts to about $150 a month.

The most recent retiree was Will Pennington, who spent 20 years volunteering.

French said the fact that Pennington lasted 20 years is remarkable because volunteers often get burned out.

“To make it 20 years, something is to be said for that because they see so much tragedy and death in those 20 years. Not everybody makes it. They’ve seen too much. And there’s no shame in walking away. No one has ever been looked down on anybody who says ‘it’s just my time to go.’

“It takes a lot out of you as a human being, not only to see people you don’t know die, but also those you know and love. People in the community. It takes something from you. It’s people you care about in your community.”

Wanted: a few special men and women.

Pay: saving lives and property.