This is the last in a six-part series on Volunteer Fire Departments in Cullman County

Fighting fires isn’t the only service volunteer firefighters perform in Cullman County.

Local government officials can think of a lot more duties they perform that are vital to the communities they serve.

“When we have storms, they are out there clearing roads of debris even before the road department gets there in most cases,” Cullman County Commission Chairman Wiley Kitchens said. “They do a good job keeping people from getting on (downed) power lines.”

“They are usually the first to respond to a medical emergency at some of our schools,” Cullman County Schools Superintendent Nancy Horton said. “They offer assistance to stabilize the situation until medical personnel can get there.”

West Point Mayor Wayne Willingham knows first-hand some of the valuable services they provide. He used to be a volunteer firefighter.

“They’ve got a big job crawling out of bed at three in the morning to fight a fire or work a wreck,” Willingham said. “They battle house fires. They battle grass fires.”

“We’re willing to help out with whatever they need us to do,” Cullman County Volunteer Firefighter Association President Euell Hodge said of efforts, which also includes Hazmat duty. “We have a good working relationship with most of the towns in the county.”

The No. 1 need is fire prevention, something local officials said the county’s 26 departments do a very good job of doing.

One instance sticks out in Fairview Mayor Randall Shedd’s mind. He remembers an accidental fire at Fairview School that he said threatened the entire facility.

“They prevented the school from burning down,” Shedd said. “A student accidentally started a fire in a janitor’s closet underneath a stairway. A large part of the building was a wooden structure. It would have been very easy for it to have gone up in flames. We found that out when the school was destroyed by arson a couple of years later (in 1999).”

Horton said there was nothing the volunteer fire departments could do to prevent that fire from burning the school to the ground, or the arson fires that destroyed Dowling and West Point schools in 1996.

“They were all started at night,” Horton said. “They all had wooden floors that were dipped in oil. I think nearly every department responded. They put up valiant efforts.”

West Point and Fairview schools have been rebuilt with structures that are more fire resistant, but that hasn’t stopped local departments from emphasizing fire prevention efforts.

Horton said members of some of the departments have gone to county schools to teach students fire prevention tips.

“They also bring some of their equipment,” Horton said.

Local school children have also toured some of the departments around the county.

“They are vitally important to the schools in the outlying areas of the county,” Horton said.

Shedd and Willingham said efforts by the local departments help with insurance rates.

Most local government officials said they do what they can to help out the various departments in the county.

Baileyton, West Point and Fairview have been among the towns that have helped their departments purchase trucks and equipment.

“They really do a large amount of service calls for the people of this community,” Baileyton Mayor Paul Bailey said. “We’re really proud of the job they do. The town does what it can to support it.”

Some departments, however, don’t have towns to help out.

“A department like Berlin doesn’t have a town to support it, but the people in the community really help out when they can,” Hodges said.

Kitchens said the County Commission has helped local departments purchase equipment.

“I really wish we could do more,” Kitchens said. “We just don’t have enough money.”