Happy Birthday NVFC!

March 15, 2026

By Steve Hirsch, NVFC Chair

Note: View the video of this statement here.

In November of 1975, representatives from seven state firefighter associations gathered in Chicago to talk about establishing an organization, national in scope, to represent volunteer firefighters. The first meeting of the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) was held on March 15, 1976 with twelve states represented. Over the years, the NVFC has continued to grow and mature.

It is exciting that our birthday coincides with the bicentennial of our great nation – and just as exciting that we will be celebrating 50 years when the nation celebrates its 250th! We have a lot in common with this great country’s founding. George Washington was a volunteer in Alexandria, VA, Ben Franklin was one of the founders of Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in 1736, and Thomas Jefferson started a volunteer fire department in Richmond, VA, in 1779. President Franklin Pierce was a volunteer in Concord, NW, President Calvin Coolidge in Northampton, MA, and President Herbert Hoover in West Branch, IA. Of all of these, I believe that West Branch is still a volunteer department.

Our country’s founders believed in individual liberties – the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – but they also knew that protection of the citizens and their property from the ravages of fire was not something that could be done alone, which is why they organized fire companies. They knew that one wooden house built close to one another in our cities was a recipe for disaster. They knew that a wildfire in grasslands would ultimately find a house or a barn unless checked by the townspeople.

That’s why my dad got involved in the fire service – and I suspect why many of you got involved – to serve our communities, to help out our neighbors when they need our help the most. We know that if we don’t volunteer, there isn’t anyone to handle those calls.

Over the years we evolved into a service that doesn’t just handle fire, but rather are an all hazards agency. The country started that way too. A nation founded over the love of liberty that found that when it stood for what was right, it would grow and prosper. There is no country on this earth – none was ever founded – that can match our nation’s strength, its generosity, and its kindness. The same can be said for the nation’s volunteer fire service. Volunteer firefighters make up the overwhelming majority of firefighters in our nation. Volunteer firefighters cover the largest land mass in the nation. Volunteer firefighters are professional, they are strong, they are generous and they are kind.

Have we made mistakes as a nation and as a fire service? Sure. We didn’t give women the right to vote for many years – and we couldn’t quite see the need to have female firefighters. We were okay that a huge section of our population was enslaved – and we couldn’t bring ourselves to have anything other than Caucasian firefighters. Just as the nation grew in might, it changed its attitudes and as the volunteer fire service grew we understood that we couldn’t exclude segments of our population from among our ranks.

I am a proud American. I am very proud to serve this nation as a volunteer firefighter. Every day our brothers and sisters are fighting fires, extricating people in rescue situations, caring for our citizens when their health demands it, responding to gas meters that are broken off, responding to wildland fires, watching the clouds for the next weather event, and so much more.

If you are reading this and are a volunteer firefighter, thank you! If you are reading this and aren’t, then now is the time. Your community – yes even your nation – needs you. God bless the volunteer fire service, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.