We believe every individual who is a part of the Hopewell Fire Department plays a vital role in achieving our mission to save lives, protect property, and care for our community. We believe our Firefighters and EMT’s can only provide the highest level of emergency response on the streets when that same standard exists throughout our entire organization.

We have promised our community exemplary leadership and performance, and to do so, we expect every volunteer to excel in their area of expertise. In turn, every Hopewell Fire Department team member innovates and improves our emergency services by bringing their best to the table every day. The dynamic ideas and dedicated work of our employees result in another life saved another home or business salvaged, and more care brought to the very people who make up our towns, neighborhoods, and even our homes.

Our team knows they are making a difference with each emergency response and every harmful incident we have worked to prevent. It is not easy work, but our volunteers excel with the support of a community that values their contribution and an organization with a clearly defined purpose. The challenge of advancing our mission drives us to new levels every day and the result is a sense of pride beyond compare.

At the end of the day, all the T-shirts, parades and cool-looking trucks are just a byproduct of good old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears on the training ground. We gain our knowledge through repetition and failure at the station so that when the bell tolls, we are ready to be professional, unpaid firefighters the public wants and, more importantly, needs to help them during their darkest hour.

We receive thanks from those we help and those who notice us around town. We participate in parades and celebration drive-bys. Yes, we lack adequate sleep sometimes, but at the end of the day, when we look in the mirror, we know that we helped someone today and we get to do it again tomorrow.

What’s your “why”? That’s for you to decide when you join.

It may seem daunting and a little overwhelming covering situations such as vehicle extrication, fire control and suppression, types of building construction, calculating gpm from a hydrant into your pump panel in order to calculate the amount of water you will need from a mutual-aid department into your two dump tanks – and all this while you have an attack line into a two-story dwelling, calculating friction loss and elevation loss, as Air Medical is landing downwind away from power lines for the burn victim you just saved.

Have no fear, you are not expected to know this when you first join! Everything takes time, and as the probie, you are expected to help wherever your experience and limitations allow. You will have the training – in class, practical application and from the wisdom of the grey-haired grumpy souls who have been around since horses were pulling steam pumpers.

We still trust and utilize our handlebar-mustache membership to provide us the art behind the science of our craft. There is something to the stories about using the heat on your ears to know that it’s about to get bad or how the officer’s rank insignia is actually an ode to the past when officers used to use the speaking trumpets to amplify their voices over the noise and commotion in order to effectively lead their firefighters in a fire. Like anything, there is a million ways to get a cat out of a tree.