Emergency Response Calls Continue to Rise For Baldwin County Volunteer Firefighters
By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
August 1, 2025
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. On any given day while driving down the streets of Baldwin County, you will probably see a fire truck with sirens blaring and lights flashing, rushing off to yet another emergency.
Almost all of the fire departments in Baldwin County continue to be staffed by unpaid, but highly trained volunteer firefighters, and that includes their chief.
Even in the most rural part of the county, calls for emergencies continue to rise, and while those aren’t always fires, there are plenty of other types of calls that firefighters are dispatched to.
Fire departments are the most frequently dispatched agency when someone calls for help.
A tree has fallen onto the roadway. A power line is hanging low. A person is not feeling well, or they are having a heart attack.
From medical calls to helping with law enforcement direct traffic at the scene of a crash, to putting out fires, Baldwin County firefighters, even those who aren’t paid, are expected to respond at all hours of the day and night, in all types of weather (like our recent blizzard) and at a moment’s notice.
Fire departments in Styx River, Rosinton, Fairhope, Robertsdale, and even Barnwell are seeing their call volumes increase to a degree where some days, it’s almost impossible to have readily available volunteers standing by to respond to the call, but somehow, they have managed to do just that.
On some days, Fairhope, one of the fastest growing cities in the county, can find the fire department being dispatched from one call to another all day long.
The level of service provided to the city by Chief Chris Ellis and a small group of dedicated volunteers is what you might expect from a career fire department that is staffed around the clock by paid firefighters and medics.
In fact, in talking with Fairhope residents recently, they stated that they did not know that the fire department was staffed by volunteers.
Rosinton and Styx River fire departments on the east side of the county have also found their call volumes increase steadily in recent years, responding to a large number of medical emergencies, traffic wrecks on Interstate 10, and the busy beach express corridor.
In recent months, these volunteer fire departments worked around the clock during the snowstorm, often manning traffic details in the cold and snow on Interstate 10, and most recently, working day and night responding to flooded streets and homes along the Styx River.
Robertsdale, a growing community in the heart of Alabama 59, a major corridor connecting the growing communities of Summerdale, Loxley, Foley, and beyond, has also seen a greater demand for the services of the fire department.
The daily calls for this volunteer agency have seen a significant increase in their callouts during the past few years. From car wrecks to medical calls, brush fires, and structure fires, mutual-aid response, and everything in between, the fire department is feeling the pains of the demand for their services.
Some of the county fire departments employ both career paid firefighters while also staffing the department with volunteer firefighters.
Bay Minette, Summerdale, Foley, Spanish Fort, are some of those, while Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Daphne have career departments, and the remainder of the county fire departments are staffed completely with volunteers.
At one time, all of Baldwin County counted on local volunteers to provide medical and fire services, but with the explosive growth that the county has had in recent years, that’s no longer possible.
A nationwide decline in volunteerism, a larger call volume, and a growing demand for a diversified fire department have led many small cities across the country to go to a fully staffed, career model fire department to ensure that when emergencies happen, trained, on-duty personnel with be available 24/7.
Locally, Fairhope will have little choice but to establish a combination career and volunteer department to provide the services that their rapid growth is demanding of them.
Several other local fire departments will also have no choice but to do the same within just a few short years.
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