Volunteers Power Most Rural Fire Departments - What are the Implications?

Bucksnort Fire & Rescue President Jamie Denson takes the steering wheel of one of the volunteer department's vehicles. | Photo by Gabrielle Reed

I put the finishing touches on my hair - a dash of hairspray to add volume - and shut the door to our A frame home. 

Twenty steps across the street and I was at the Denson house. Jamie Denson was my neighbor I’d known for more than a year. 

When I moved  into the A frame, he and his sons helped me squeeze the nicest piece of furniture I own - a faux leather couch - through our narrow doorway. 

As I approached his backyard, Jamie slid out from underneath his truck. The engine blew out on it the week before, and his hands were covered in grease from performing a diagnostic assessment. 

His whole face had an ashy tinge too, which was unrelated to the truck. 

The day before, he spent six hours helping fight a brush fire. A Bobcat exploded engulfing 20 acres of wooded land into flames. 

On this breezy Sunday, Jamie planned to alternate between fixing his truck and cleaning the grease off the fire truck parked outside his home. 

Jamie was, and still is, president of the Bucksnort Fire Department, composed of thirteen volunteer firefighters. His department is one of seven in Hickman County, Tennessee, which is 613 square miles and home to just under 25,000 people.

​“At first, we started a community organization in Bucksnort to get emergency medical services (EMS) out there,” Denson said in an interview. 

Members of the unincorporated community off exit 152 on I-40 had been concerned about the death of a local man, which most blamed on the fact that EMS didn’t arrive at his residence until 45 minutes after a call was made. 
​
Another community member agreed to lease a building he owned for $1 for five years to EMS personnel if the community covered half of the costs to support the service, but EMS left before the five years were up. 

​“They just couldn’t stand it,” Denson said.

Photo by Gabrielle Reed

​Want to read more? Get the rest of the story FREE by signing up for the full April edition of Finding Country Magazine!