The rescue truck pulled up to the scene of the accident and Trevor Goldman, a junior at Northwood and volunteer at Parkwood Fire Station in Durham, jumped out. Through the darkness, the first thing Goldman saw was a bright yellow motorcycle.
     “It was torn up,” he recalled. “You could tell it had done a couple of flips and landed funny.”
     Then the sidelights for the truck flashed on, and Goldman immediately noticed a man lying on the sidewalk. The back of the man’s helmet had been crushed and was now a concave shape.  Goldman rushed over to assist putting the man on a backboard and into the ambulance.
     For Goldman, this was the moment he had been waiting for. After months of training at the fire station, this was his first call.
     “It felt like all the training had paid off,” Goldman said proudly.
     Goldman, who has volunteered at the station for over two years, began the program as a way to spend time with his father, who is also invested in volunteering.
     “It’s a great bonding thing. My dad and I spend a lot of time together, along with everyone at the fire department. It’s all friends and family over there… definitely not your typical work environment,” said Goldman.
     Goldman is not the only volunteer firefighter walking the halls of Northwood. Junior Julian Parrish volunteers at Moncure Volunteer Fire Department. Parrish began the program with his dad, and is in training to become a paid fireman.
     “This is what I want to do for my career. I’ve wanted to be a fireman since I was a little kid,” said Parrish.
     For these two everyday high school students, working at the fire department is nothing out of the ordinary. Every weekend these volunteers spend their time doing what they love most.
     Although calls come into the stations frequently (about two to three times a day) there are many other responsibilities that the boys must also accomplish while working.
     Upon first arrival at the fire department, there is a list of station duties that need to be completed, such as cleaning and organizing. In between these daily tasks is when they get calls.
     “On call you wait for fires, car accidents and EMS calls,” said Goldman. “We also have many dates where we practice putting out fires, opening mangled cars, and do basic EMS training.”
     Goldman takes these basic skills with him each time his department gets a call. On one occasion, he distinctly remembers the hysteria of a house fire.
     “We had just gotten done eating lunch and we got called out to a structure fire,” he recalled. “We could smell the smoke from our fire station, which was blocks away.”
     Goldman and the other Parkwood firefighters immediately rushed to the scene, where Goldman hooked up the fire hose to the hydrant, then proceeded to help with the extinguishing.
     “I volunteer because I like the adrenaline rush,” said Goldman. “I love the energy, I love the excitement, I love being put into a pressured situation and forced to perform without showing stress.”