When Helene struck, fire departments in western North Carolina were tested like never before.

In Swannanoa, the storm came so fast that even firefighters themselves had to pull back.

We actually were told about 6 o'clock on that Friday morning that we need to evacuate our station, that we are either going to get flooded or we will be trapped.

The Swannanoa Fire Department runs on a combination of full-time staff and volunteers.

When Helene hit, both groups carried the burden.

We prepare ourselves for anything and everything, but they stepped up and went days serving their community without even knowing what their homes looked like.

This is often the reality of disaster response in North Carolina.

Nearly 70% of the state's firefighters are volunteers, but those numbers are shrinking, down more than 5,000 since 2020.

Natural disasters often make that shortage even worse.

We were told that we could lose 25% of our police, fire, and EMS personnel after a storm like this.

At our department, we lost three full-time firefighters.

We have one that's been out for quite some time, and we lost a 34-year veteran who just had enough.

Go Hawks!

During that time, Helene also lit a spark.

Across Buncombe County, new recruits began stepping forward, inspired to serve after the storm.

One of them was Tanner Stewart.

He joined the Swannanoa Fire Department as a volunteer in February.

Now he's going through the academy in hopes of becoming full-time.

During Helene, I was out in Fairview helping one of the most affected areas, and just that sense of helping out the community, helping people in their most desperate time of need is what made me actually make the push to join the fire department.

It's a familiar story throughout the academy.

Whenever Helene swept through WNC, and I grew up here, born and raised, and seeing all the destruction, seeing everything that I knew kind of be brought down, it really motivated me that I want to be there to help bring it back up.

For Matthew Walters, that calling goes beyond the firehouse.

With a master's degree in finance, he could have pursued any career, but he says the storm reminded him where he was needed the most.

You saw your community really step up for each other, and that's what got me back into it is I saw the love community and wanted to bring what I can into that.

But the fire service isn't only drawing in the young.

Some volunteers answer the call later in life.

One week before Helene hit, Russ Crutchfield had just signed up as a volunteer in Swannanoa.

Thrown into the fire literally just by being here at that time, and it was, I spent just about every day, I think every day for a couple weeks there at the fire station.

I think there is an age limit, and I'm sure I'm near the top of it in getting into this class, but it's fun for me to be around the younger people and seeing their desire to get involved.

And I kind of wish that I would see more people my age helping out because there is a need for people like me to be involved.

But keeping volunteers isn't easy.

Burnout, long hours, and the strain of disasters push many to step away.

It's always a challenge.

It's not only just local, it's state and national.

We're seeing volunteerism not only in the fire service, but across many organizations, United Way, American Red Cross, and all that stuff.

People are just so busy that they just don't have the time to spend, but hopefully we'll see an influx of that.

We're really promoting it to get people to, hey, take a second look at us.

It's a good career, it's a rewarding career, and an opportunity to give back.

And Webb's concerns are common.

Across North Carolina, volunteer firefighter numbers are at their lowest in decades.

Nationwide, the drop has been steady for more than 40 years.

The reasons are many.

Younger families moving away from rural towns, volunteers balancing multiple jobs, and hundreds of hours of training requirements that make it harder to serve.

And when departments can't recruit enough volunteers, dispatchers have to send crews from farther away.

This leads to longer response times and even higher insurance premiums for homeowners.

So this year, state lawmakers launched a study of rural firefighting, looking at recruitment strategies, funding for trucks and equipment, and the toll on firefighters' health.

And statewide recruitment campaigns are also trying to show young people why this work matters.

It's one of those things where the fire department's got a lot of tradition, and so as the older generation moves out, it's our responsibility to make sure that the younger generation knows those traditions and can keep those traditions going.

And I try to let people know that it's just the right thing to do.

Serving other people is the right thing to do.

I enjoy putting my uniform on every day and going and serving the people of my community.

And that's kind of the message I want the younger generation to know as well.

This is a great profession.

For recruits like Matthew Walters, that tradition is something he hopes to carry even further into classrooms, where the next generation will decide if they too are ready to answer the call.

I want to go specifically into firefighting education.

A lot of my family are teachers, a lot of people I care about are teachers.

And I think that's where the seed really starts, is getting kids and showing them that heroism exists, that helping people exists, and making it so that they can strive for it.

Hurricane Helene revealed just how fragile North Carolina's volunteer fire service has become.

But it also revealed something else.

Neighbors from veterans to brand new recruits willing to step forward when it matters the most.