'It’s hard to convince someone to take on such a big time commitment, especially when they aren’t getting paid for it.'
In the early hours of the morning — before the sun has risen, before some people have even gone to bed — Gary Miller is in his truck, rumbling down the road alone.
He has a thermos of hot coffee next to him (he drinks a pot a day) and, for at least a few hours, everything seems calm. Almost like the rest of the world is on pause.
The silence can last for only so long though. And with the sound of a fire siren cutting through the wind, creeping through his window, Miller snaps alert. Someone, somewhere, needs help.
It’s a sound he knows well. It's a sound that has pretty much defined his life. Miller, a trucker by trade, has been a volunteer firefighter for just short of 40 years, and if that emergency call had come in just a few hours sooner or a few hours later, he might have been on that firetruck with his crew.