Crete Fire and Rescue receives biggest inflow of volunteers at once

CRETE, Neb. -- The Crete Fire Department is welcoming its biggest influx of volunteers at one time.

Six new volunteers are joining the department, increasing its number to 42 total members. 

Moving to 42 members is a big help to James Yost, Assistant Fire Chief.

“Moving up to 42,” said Yost. “That just allows responders to be available at any given time of day.”

There is always the thought in the back of Yost’s mind, “what if we don’t have enough responders?”

This increase can ease some of that pressure.  

“It gives me a sense of relief because, there are a bunch of members that think just like I am, if we are out of town, are there going to be enough people to help,” said Yost. “So this just adds that buffer and adds that chance that we’re going to have plenty of people on any given day to respond to any kind of emergency that will come."

One of the volunteers, Dalton Steelman, had a simple reason as to why he joined. 

“I just wanted to be a part of the community and help out as much as I can,” said Steelman, a new volunteer.

But he also had a little bit of a push from the fire department itself. 

“I had a buddy that also joined about six months ago so that kinda gave me the kick,” said Steelman.

And Yost believes the more responders, the quicker the response can be in the case of an emergency. 

“The reason why a lot of us do this is because I expect someone to come if I call 911 for help,” said Yost. “So, I just want our community to remember that and we would love to get our numbers up to 50 because that’s what our city code allows.”