Volunteering & Joining

Tell us you're interested. Call the station at (814) 476-7321, message us on Facebook, or fill in the form on our Join page. You don't need experience or training to start.

Next, you meet with our chief and our president for an interview, and you complete child abuse clearances and a criminal background check. Then we enroll you in training for the role you choose. Our answer on training covers what that involves.

Members must be at least 18 years old. Young people ages 14 to 17 can join as junior members with the signed consent of a parent or guardian. You don't need to live in McKean to join.

No. You need no experience and no prior training to become a volunteer firefighter.

When you join, we provide your training, or put you into a program run by the county or the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy. You'll learn everything from how to put on gear to how to operate a hose line to how to search a burning building.

What you do need:

• Willingness to learn. The training is extensive, and it assumes you're starting from scratch.
• Reliability. Showing up consistently for training and calls matters more than raw physical ability or prior knowledge.
• A good attitude. You'll be learning alongside experienced firefighters who want to teach you.

What you don't need:

• A background in firefighting or emergency services
• A college degree or specific education
• Prior medical training (though EMT certification can be part of your volunteer path if you're interested)
• To be a certain size or gender

As much as you can give. Nobody expects you to make every call.

Firefighter I takes several months of evening and weekend classes. We train together every Monday at 7 PM, except on federal holidays, and you answer calls when you're free. There are no shifts. When the alert goes out, you go if you can.

Most of our members have jobs and families too. We'd rather have you for the calls you can make than lose you because you felt you had to make all of them.

Physical fitness: Interior firefighting is physically demanding, no question. But not every volunteer role involves going into burning buildings. There are essential roles for people of all fitness levels, see our answer on non-firefighting roles below. And if you do want to become a firefighter, the training process itself builds fitness over time. You don't need to show up in peak condition on day one.

Age: Members must be at least 18 years old, and young people ages 14 to 17 can join as junior members. There's no maximum age. Older members bring experience, judgment, and community knowledge that's enormously valuable. If age or physical limitations prevent you from interior firefighting, there are plenty of other roles where you can contribute meaningfully.

Gender: Women serve as volunteer and career firefighters across the country. They hold every rank and perform every role. If someone has told you, or you've assumed, that fire departments are men-only, that hasn't been true for a long time. Women serve as officers here at McKean on both the fire side and the business side.

Other concerns people have:

• "I have a disability". Some roles are physically accessible. Talk to us about what you can do.
• "I work full-time / I work irregular hours". So does almost every other volunteer. You respond when you can.
• "I don't live in McKean". We welcome members who live outside McKean.

We need members. If you want to help in any way, call us or fill in the form on our Join page.

Firefighting is just one part of what we do, and plenty of our volunteers never go into a burning building.

Other ways to serve:

• Fire police. Direct traffic and secure the scene at emergencies and community events. Requires a separate certification but no firefighting training. Fire police are critically important at accident scenes and large incidents.
• Emergency medical services (EMS). Staff the ambulance on medical calls. Crew members certify as Emergency Medical Responders or EMTs.
• Driver and operator. Drive and operate fire trucks and equipment. Requires specialized training but the role focuses on getting the truck there and running the pump, not interior firefighting.
• Rehab/support. Provide water, food, and rest monitoring for firefighters at extended incidents. Doesn't require firefighting certification.
• Administrative roles. Secretary, treasurer, fundraising coordinator, grant writer, social media manager, website management. Running a fire department takes people who can handle paperwork, finances, and communications.
• Fundraising. Planning and running the events that keep us funded. This is a major ongoing need.
• Maintenance. Equipment cleaning, truck maintenance, station upkeep. Mechanical skills are highly valued.

If you have a skill, any skill, we can probably use it. What matters most is showing up and being willing to help.

The training path depends on your role, and we guide you through it.

Firefighters work toward the state firefighter certifications. EMS members train as an Emergency Medical Responder or an EMT. Fire police have their own certification covering traffic control and scene safety. There are further certifications after that, in areas like vehicle rescue, depending on your interests and what we need.

Training runs through the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy, county fire academies, or approved local programs, and the certifications are the same whether you're a volunteer or a career firefighter.

The state keeps the current requirements on its own pages:

• Firefighter certifications, Office of the State Fire Commissioner
• Pennsylvania State Fire Academy

Ask us as well.

Yes. We cover your course fees and give you your gear, so joining costs you nothing but your time.

No. We address this myth in detail in our Myths & Misconceptions section, but the short answer is that the certifications are exactly the same, taught to the same national standard, whether you earn them as a volunteer or as a career firefighter.

The word "volunteer" describes how members are compensated (they're not), not how they're trained or how they perform. Volunteer firefighters complete the same Firefighter I certification, pass the same exams, follow the same NFPA standards, and train regularly to maintain their skills.

What volunteers give up is their personal time. They complete all of this training on top of their regular jobs and family responsibilities. They respond to your emergency at 3 AM knowing they still have to be at work at 7 AM.