Thank a volunteer firefighter

April 15-21 is National Volunteer Week, and we want to recognize a special group of volunteers — firefighters.

With a few exceptions, Long Island fire departments are made up entirely of volunteers. Across the Island there are tens of thousands of them, fighting fires and administering life-saving treatment with no monetary compensation. They are often the first ones on the scene of an emergency.

Being a volunteer firefighter or emergency medical technician is no easy task. They are often called to duty at the most inconvenient times, whether it’s in the middle of the night, while they’re at work or when they’re spending time with their families. Emergencies don’t conform to anyone’s schedule, so our volunteers should be lauded for choosing to give up their time virtually randomly. We just saw the commitment made by hundreds of firefighters from dozens of departments that fought last week’s wildfires in Suffolk County.

And theirs isn’t just a commitment of time. They do dangerous, often life-threatening work. Would you be willing to run into a burning building or pull someone from a mangled vehicle at the scene of an accident? This is why firefighters receive countless hours of training before they are even allowed to put on a uniform, and continue to train year-round.

Our volunteer firefighters and other first responders are our neighbors and friends. They are residents of our communities who have jobs and families and pay taxes. But they do something special for those communities; something it’s impossible to put a price on. Whether they do it simply because they want to help their neighbors, or for the camaraderie of belonging to the fire department, or both, they are to be commended, and never taken for granted.

If you know some volunteer firefighters, make sure to thank them. We all hope we will never need their assistance. But isn’t it great knowing that they’re there, just in case?