In 1958, it didn't matter much that the Stony Hill Fire Department was a tin shed behind the Falls Lake Grocery. If a fire broke out, any one of a dozen men jolted out of bed and came running at the scream of a siren.

But a volunteer crew doesn't cut it anymore. Not with tony subdivisions and colossal new homes starting at $500,000. Still, a blaze in this rural community often gets fought by a pair of men -- one on the truck and one on the hose.

It's a shortage that vexes fire departments across rural Wake County, home to roughly 180,000 people. Firefighters are pushing for $7.6 million over the next three years to buy bigger, full-time crews.

With subdivisions popping up on old farm land, and fire trucks needed at every fender-bender or heart attack, firefighters say Wake County's far-flung communities cannot stay safe with weekend volunteers. More full-timers are needed to reduce long response times, man stations when volunteers have to work, and field bigger crews to battle blazes.

Professional firefighters are also needed to compensate for the steady decline in the number of volunteers willing to fight fires. In the past 10 years, the roster of volunteers has shrunk by 24 percent, Wake fire chiefs say.

County officials, meanwhile, wonder if it might be time to revamp the archaic system of 19 fire districts, close redundant stations, and combine others.

Growth is changing the landscape of firefighting -- both in the Triangle and across North Carolina, said Paul F. Miller, executive director of the 52,000-member N.C. State Firemen's Association. Used to be, fire departments were either all-volunteer, covering small-town and rural areas, or all-professional, mostly seen in large and medium-sized cities.

But with the relentless sprawl marching out of Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte and other cities, once-rural volunteer fire departments have been forced to hire full-time professionals, Miller said, to handle the increased number of fire and emergency medical calls. As a result, few fire departments that once wore the 'volunteer' logo are all-volunteer anymore.

"What we are seeing is what we call the combination fire department -- it's a whole new animal," Miller said.

Changing landscape

The trend is readily apparent in Wake County. In Apex, calls have shot up by 300 in each of the last several years, topping 2,100 in 2007.

Chief Mark Haraway recalled when two of his men rushed into a burning house about three years ago, alone and first on the scene.

"They both fell through the floor," he said. "We've had some close calls."

His station on New Hill-Holleman Road finished 2007 with one of the longest response times in the county: 13.3 minutes -- about 4 minutes short of Wake County's goal.

On weekdays, it gets staffed by two full-time, paid firefighters. At night and on weekends, it's mostly volunteers.

"The problem is I've only got about 10 volunteers," Haraway said.

Part of the trouble comes from Wake County's changing landscape.

Consider Stony Hill, which sits just west of Wake Forest near Falls Lake.

Along New Light Road, you can still see the signs of old-time country life: single-wide mobile homes and family grave plots, some with the inscriptions hand-carved on rocks.

But just across the street from these relics, the massive brick homes of Kelsey at Falls Lake sell starting at $500,000. Firefighters call those homes, with their lofty peaks and airy attic spaces, a nightmare in a fire.

The situation at Stony Hill's Station No. 2 mirrors Apex: two paid men during on weekdays, volunteers at night and on weekends -- if they show up.

"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.