For volunteer firefighters, every day means being on call, even if it means missing work.

That includes three firefighters for the Harmony Fire District who also work at J.J. Kennedy, a builders supply business in Fombell, Beaver County.

“It switches from a community service to a way of life,” said firefighter and company employee Josh Rader. “It becomes a part of you and another thing you do.”

Rader, along with Mike Nanna and Ian Walker, have been doing this for years now, driving a mixing truck one minute and manning a fire engine the next.

When duty calls, they switch their hard hats for fire helmets.

“It takes a lot, but you get used to it,” Nanna said.

Rader became a firefighter in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan hit the area. Nanna comes from a family of firefighters, while Walker said he became a firefighter after his friends also became volunteers.

Rader said the fire district gets upward of three calls a week. He also said depending on the call, firefighters take two to four hours per call. J.J. Kennedy pays the firefighters for going on call, allowing four hours per firefighter.

The three said they are more available in the wintertime when their workload at J.J. Kennedy is not as heavy as it is in the summer months. Fire calls also are fewer in the winter, they said.

“There are times when none of us can leave,” Rader said. “We try to free up one of us to go. All of us are drivers, so at least we can drive an engine.”

Rader coordinates which employees go to calls on a rotational basis.

“Our workload changes every day, so it's hit and miss,” he said. “Usually I'll text the chief or the officer in charge and tell them who I'm sending. There are times when all of us cram into a truck and ride together.”

The firefighters have to clear their calls with John Rader, J.J. Kennedy vice president.

“I've had employees for twenty-something years who have always left (for calls),” Rader said. “In 2014, we put a formal policy in place, but it's been going on here for many years.”

J.J. Kennedy recently received the “Community Recognition” award from the fire district, which Josh Rader said was for the “hundreds of hours” given to the firefighters to respond to calls.

“Our thought process here is they volunteer hundreds of hours through the year,” John Rader said. “They sacrifice enough as it is. Why sacrifice on their paycheck if we can keep them moving?”

Rader said no one has abused the policy.

“I would hope more people would do it,” he said.

“We're all friends at work there,” Nanna said. “They genuinely care about their employees' families and the community.”

However, not all companies allow this much leeway for firefighters.

“If you ask these guys how many other employers would let them leave from work, plus continue to pay them while they go to a fire call, you would find that the only guys who get that are the Kennedy guys,” Nanna said.

Nanna had to recently relinquish his duty as lieutenant due to the amount of work it requires.

“We're a dying breed,” Walker said.

The fire district has 100 volunteers, including active and inactive volunteers and auxiliary members. It was formed after two former volunteer fire departments in Zelienople and Harmony merged.

Officials said helping with the overall decrease in volunteer firefighters in the state was one of the reasons why the merger was done.

“I wouldn't call the merger anything other than very successful,” Rader said.

Firefighters also said response times have improved as well as the quality of service since the merger. The fire district also is currently searching for a new location to call home.

“It (merger) has fixed a lot of the issues with our department,” Nanna said. “Improvement is always our top thing, because we don't want the merger to just be a fix for now. We need to keep going with it.”

The three also talked about balancing their work with family life.

“With kids, it makes it a lot harder,” Walker said. “Between work, here and other things, it's a lot. If anyone tells you it's easy, they're full of it.”

The fire district also needs more young volunteers due to a generation gap, with people north of 50-years-old being the largest group of firefighters in service.

“There's a smaller group of 30-year-olds and a smaller group of 20-year-olds,” Nanna said. “That's just the volunteer fire service as a whole nationally.”

Those interested in becoming volunteers can pick up applications at the fire station.