When the alarm sounds at the Coralville Fire Department, it’s not always a career firefighter who responds. More often than not, it’s one of the department’s volunteer firefighters, a crew of over 30 people whose commitment to the job is driven by serving the community rather than receiving a paycheck.

Gary Savona, a lieutenant who has been with the department for nearly 30 years, said the Coralville Fire Department has only five paid positions — a chief, assistant chief, two captains, and himself. Without the crew of 32 volunteers who have completed their year-long academy training and 21 who are currently in the process, Savona said the department would likely have to shut its doors.

“The volunteers are the bread and butter of this operation,” Savona said.

Savona said the volunteer firefighters attend a four-hour training session weekly for approximately a year. At the end of that year, they earn firefighter 1 and 2 certifications, a hazardous materials certification, and are allowed to work in situations classified as “Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health.”

“While they’re training, they can come on the engine with us, they run calls with us,” Savona said. “But they can’t go into a structure fire.”

The volunteers, both certified and in-training, are seamlessly integrated into the department’s schedule alongside its five full-time firefighters, Savona said.

“You would never know the difference between a volunteer and a paid guy,” Savona said.

For Drew Kazerani, a volunteer firefighter who completed his training last April, the motivation comes from serving the community where he grew up. Kazerani, who also works full-time in the rehabilitation department at St. Luke’s Hospital, said the year-long training was undeniably grueling, but it also built a strong sense of camaraderie among the volunteers in his class.

“I love coming here, being with the group,” Kazerani said. “They make you feel welcome.”

That same sense of camaraderie and community is what drew Gabriel Alizaidy to train as a volunteer firefighter. After moving to Coralville from Chicago, he was looking to make friends and give back. As a volunteer, Alizaidy said, he found both.

Alizaidy, who graduated in the same class as Kazerani, said one of the most challenging parts of training was performing strenuous physical tasks while breathing through an oxygen tank.

“The feeling is so foreign that there’s nothing that can prepare you,” Alizaidy said.

Though he already had a background in fitness through his work in research and development for a men’s health company, Alizaidy found the firefighter training uniquely intense.

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“No amount of gym stuff could have prepared me. You can run miles every single day. You’re not going to be prepared for it,” Alizaidy said.

It’s a level of difficulty that has only deepened his respect for his fellow volunteers, Alizaidy said, especially the women, who he said often set the bar.

“Women are just as strong, if not stronger,” Alizaidy said. “They’re badass, they’re very, very smart, and they put their heart and soul into it. So, the stigma where firefighters have to be men — we’re definitely shattering that.”

Tara O’Malley, a volunteer firefighter who started at the same time as Kazerani and Alizaidy, said she has long been interested in training as a volunteer firefighter but initially felt intimidated entering a male-dominated and physically demanding field. But now, O’Malley said she feels and is treated like one of the guys.

“All it takes is motivation, more than anything,” O’Malley said. “I do the same amount of training as these guys.”

Savona said the male and female volunteers complete the same training in the same uniform and gear side by side.

O’Malley said working in an emergency room has instilled in her a focus on serving others, which drew her to train as a volunteer firefighter.

“Public service in general is just always something I wanted to do,” O’Malley said. “This is a pretty badass way to do it.”

For Mackenzie Rabenstine, a first-year psychology student at the University of Iowa, beginning her training as a volunteer firefighter is carrying on a family legacy.

“My dad was a volunteer firefighter when he was younger,” Rabenstine said, adding that her grandfather was a volunteer firefighter as well. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but I didn’t have any time to do it in high school. So, I came here, and I saw the opportunity, and I took it, and I wanted to give back to the community.”

Rabenstine, who just began her training in February, described the working environment at the fire department as warm and welcoming.

“I was anxious that I wasn’t going to make any friends, or that I wasn’t going to know anybody,” Rabenstine said. “But there’s several people from the university also in my candidate class.”

From 19-year-old Rabenstine to a volunteer in his mid-70s, Savona said the Coralville Fire Department thrives on the wide range of strengths each firefighter brings to the team.

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’s going to live its whole life thinking it’s stupid,” Savona said. “Everybody has their own skills and their own competencies, and everything is helpful. We need everybody.”