At 22, Joseph Stoll, a senior at Mississippi State University, is the youngest fire chief in Lowndes County.
When he was a 17-year-old high school senior, he joined the Fire Protection District 5 volunteer fire department as a junior firefighter. Now Stoll oversees 14 other volunteer firefighters in a rural district west of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway that encompasses Artesia and the Golden Triangle Regional Airport. He keeps his pager on nearly every minute he’s not in class, ready to respond to a fire or other emergency.
“It’s not much,” he said. “But it’s something small I can do to give back.”
All Lowndes County firefighters are volunteers. They are trained to respond to medical emergencies as well as fires, and often arrive at a scene after a long day already spent at work. And the county needs 20 to 30 more of them — particularly in Stoll’s district and in neighboring District 4, which encompasses the rural industrial area in and around the city of Crawford.
“I mean, we need volunteers in other areas,” said Fire Coordinator Neal Austin, who oversees and manages the county’s 19 volunteer fire stations and 145 firefighters. “But there’s a definite need (in districts 4 and 5).”
The average volunteer response time east of the Tenn-Tom Waterway is minutes, Austin said. But if there’s a fire or medical emergency in Artesia or Crawford, it could be 20 to 30 minutes before firefighters arrive.
Most volunteers in those districts work during the day, or live far away from fire stations. They have to drive from their home or jobs — if they can leave at all — collect the truck and then drive to the location of the fire.
“The daytime is hard, especially,” Austin said. “We definitely do suffer some because of response times.”
‘The excitement of helping someone’
New firefighters undergo a year’s worth of training at the Mississippi Fire Academy, plus additional hours shadowing veteran firefighters and completing training exercises in Lowndes County. Volunteers have to receive emergency medical response and CPR training, be able to lift and carry up to 45 pounds and pass a physical test administered by their station’s fire chief before being allowed to respond to calls.
“We’re upping the quality of our training, and we’ve had to spread the training out because most people aren’t available except at night,” Austin said. “So it can take longer.
“Some volunteers pay for special training too,” he added. “But the county pays for the minimum basic training needed.”
That basic training costs about $1,000 per firefighter, Austin said. He added he doesn’t feel those training hours are wasted. Once volunteer firefighters are trained, they tend to stay on as volunteers as long as they are able.
“It turns into a lifestyle,” Austin said. “The more you see, the more fuel it gives you to go in and do it the next time. Once they get the excitement of helping someone, they stay.”
That doesn’t mean he has all the recruits he’d like. As Artesia and Crawford expand industrially and residentially, the need for more volunteers also grows, Austin said. He thinks the problem is many people aren’t able to volunteer.
“I think the younger generation prefers to work longer hours,” he said. “And the older generation can take off to go to fires, but they sometimes aren’t physically able to.”
The need for daytime volunteers is serious enough that Stoll sometimes misses class to respond to large emergency calls.
“Most of my instructors are understanding,” he said. “They’ll give me an excused absence.”
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders acknowledges that there are slower response times with rural fire districts, but added that’s indicative of them being volunteers rather than full-time firefighters like would be found in municipalities.
“A lot of people don’t realize these are volunteers,” he said. “They don’t have to do it. This county … probably couldn’t handle it if we didn’t have volunteer firefighters. I don’t know what we’d do without them.”
Stoll agreed most people are unaware that county firefighters are volunteers — and that his district needs more.
“I’ve actually done a pretty large amount of recruiting since becoming chief,” he said. “And I’d like to see 10 or 15 more volunteers (in District 5). That would put me in a comfortable position.”
And while there’s a stronger need for residents who are available during the daytime, Austin said he’s not going to turn away anyone willing to volunteer.
“We will accept anyone,” he said. “If they’re willing (to volunteer), we can find a place for them.”
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