The clip was from the July 17, 1924, issue of the Adirondack Record-Elizabethtown Post and reported the first election of the Wilmington fire district as announced by Town Clerk W. G. Cooper a week earlier.

This year, Terry realized, was the department’s 100th anniversary. It was too late in the year to make much of it, but Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, came to the department’s annual dinner earlier this month and issued a proclamation in recognition of the big year.

As the department continues to adapt to the changes and challenges of a new era of emergency response, a few of its longtime members reflected on why they continue to dash out of restaurants and roll out of bed when the call comes.

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A Wilmington Fire & Rescue truck makes its way up state Route 86 during the town of Wilmington’s bicentennial parade in 2022. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

The best, worst of times

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Bill McGreevy joined the volunteer fire department 41 years ago. Back then, the department was entirely volunteers. He remembers preparing for parades and lingering at the station to socialize. He remembers people would gravitate to the station on Sunday afternoons.

Although much has changed since them, McGreevy looks back on many calls that reminded him why he signed up in the first place. He recalled one morning meeting following a fire call at a house just down the street. They had put out a fire there and the man living there didn’t even have to spend one night away from his home.

“I can remember getting everybody to go to the window and look and see what we did,” McGreevy said.

Charlie Terry, who has served with Wilmington Fire & Rescue for 45 years, shows off an old jacket Monday he estimates would have been used in the late 1960s or early 1970s. (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)

Those good moments, McGreevy said, balance out the hard ones — searching frantically for survivors as the building burns down around them. They are often there to witness some of the worst moments of people’s lives.

“But then, we delivered one of our commissioner’s granddaughter on the bathroom floor,” Terry said of Wilmington EMT Marcel Bruce, who delivered a granddaughter in August 2022. “We see some of the best days of people’s lives.

Either way, they keep showing up.

“You got 100 years of experience in this room right here, so clearly we must find it rewarding on some level to keep doing this,” said Daniel Hansen, a volunteer of 21 years.

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Old photos of the Wilmington fire department are seen at the firehouse. (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)

Who you gonna call?

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Terry talks about the decision he made 45 years ago to volunteer for the department almost like it was no decision at all. He was raised with the assumption that giving back to the community was just something that everyone did, even if that meant dropping everything at the most inconvenient times.

“(My daughter) grew up knowing that if she was 2 years old and it was Christmas, I was still leaving,” Terry said.

Chief Cliff Holzer added another reason why he keeps showing up.

Here is the Wilmington Fire & Rescue building on Haselton Road. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

“I have the mindset, if we don’t do it, who’s gonna?” Holzer said. “If it was my family or one of my loved ones, I’d want somebody to get out of bed at 2 in the morning.”

One of the challenges is the inherent unpredictability of their work. They never know when a call might take a serious turn, no matter how many calls turn out to be expired carbon monoxide alarms or people calling for trivial health problems.

“It still feels good to help people,” Hansen said. “Nobody wants to see a fire truck or an ambulance roll into their driveway. Whatever the situation, serious or not, these people are having a bad day and it’s a good feeling to help them.”

Some volunteers answer calls more readily and more frequently, but they each have strengths to contribute to the team, whether that be an interest in EMS skills or helping maintain equipment.

“That’s what makes a volunteer organization work. Everybody’s level of participation is obviously different, but it’s everybody collectively that makes the organization work,” McGreevy said.

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Changing times

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The world of firefighting is completely different than it was when these members started, especially Terry and McGreevy. No longer are they running around in heavy-duty raincoats for protection. Gone are the days of putting people in the back of the truck, just driving really fast to the hospital and patting themselves on the back for getting them there.

“It’s the same everywhere, it’s the same song,” McGreevy said. “It isn’t simple anymore. It was just simpler back then.”

Now, training requirements are more stringent. Decades ago, the basic training course for a volunteer firefighter took 39 hours. Now it takes 200 hours. For medical calls, the department used to make do with whatever training they had. Now the ambulance can’t move without at least one EMT, which also takes around 200 hours of training.

And the basic, good quality gear costs $5,000 dollars per member, Hansen said. The gear, not to mention the trucks, have to be replaced periodically according to state standards.

These factors have led to higher costs and, combined with lower volunteer numbers, create a perfect storm for small-town volunteer fire departments. They do have some new members — mainly junior members who can learn but can’t help with many things — who are often children of current or former department volunteers.

Terry, McGreevy and Hansen each had fathers who served in volunteer fire departments. When Terry joined — following in the footsteps of his dad and older sister — volunteer service was a given.

As people live increasingly busy lives, the department hopes they will continue to see community as an important value. The future of the department depends on it.

“In a small community, everybody should belong to something,” McGreevy. “Whether you do the gardening club or whatever it is, give something back.”