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"They're only building huge homes, being so close to the lake," said engineer Thomas Young. "The problem with having two guys is one of them drives the truck and leaves the other to fight fires."

It's not just fires. Probably 75 percent of the station's calls are medical emergencies or minor car wrecks, and this is the case at every Wake department. All of this takes training beyond the basics -- six months to get full certification -- which few volunteers obtain.

Another shift causing problems is the role of the volunteer.

Who'll answer calls?

T.J. Rhodes has worked for most of the past 20 years as a volunteer fireman in Fairview, just outside Holly Springs.

In the old days the community could get by on the come-running strategy.

But roughly 60 calls a month has grown to 120 in the past decade. Rhodes works as a diesel mechanic during the day, and two other Fairview firemen work in the shop. He can't be running out the door three times a day during working hours.

"These guys are a quarter mile down the road," said Fairview Chief Ed Brinson. "They hear our siren, and as close as they are, they can't leave work."

Brinson and Haraway made their presentation before the Wake County Commissioners on Monday, presenting a scenario that would raise the county's fire tax by 31 percent next year and 73 percent by 2015, when they expect rural population to reach 275,000. This applies to people living in rural fire districts, and it gets tacked onto property tax.

The goal is to have four full-time, paid fire fighters on duty 24 hours a day at all 19 fire districts costing $7.6 million over three years.

At Monday's meeting, County Manager David Cooke said he was skeptical of having taxpayers boost fire staff.

It might be better, he said, to combine rural fire stations and close those that are "embedded" in growing cities.

Many volunteers resent the idea of more paid firemen, said Rhodes in Fairview. He understands their point, he said, but he disagrees.

"They don't want to see change," he said. "If you're a firefighter, you want to be on the first-out truck. You want the action. You want to put the wet stuff on the red stuff."

So a sleeping volunteer might not be first on the scene at a 2 a.m. fire if the chiefs get their wish for more full-time firefighters.

But as Wake County keeps growing, Rhodes said, there should be plenty of action for everybody.

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