When the alarm bell rings in the Napa County town of Angwin, J.R. Rogers drops everything and is usually one of the first to answer the call.
Rogers, 33, is associate vice president for student life at Pacific Union College and volunteers as fire chief of the Angwin Fire Department, one of several stations staffed entirely by unpaid firefighters throughout rural areas of the county.
He supervises a staff of 39 volunteer firefighters, many of whom are on the faculty or are employees and students at the small college. Rogers, who grew up in Redlands (San Bernardino County) and moved to Angwin to attend Pacific Union College, graduated with a bachelor of science in film and television in 2007. As a student, he was encouraged to join the all-volunteer Fire Department.
“A close friend of mine was on the department and recommended that I do it,” Rogers says. “I thought it sounded like fun and was every little boy’s dream, so why not? I had no idea it would catapult me into a life of emergency response.”