When 16-year-old Grayden Brunet joined the Sackets Harbor, New York, volunteer fire department in 2017, he was the youngest on the team by 20 years. He was so determined to be following in his dad's footsteps that he persuaded two classmates, Niklas and Dalton, to sign up too.
A few years later, the older firefighters quit their jobs over COVID-19 concerns. Suddenly, the three teens were not only helping the Sackets Harbor volunteer fire department, they were the Sackets Harbor volunteer fire department. They were the ones responding to the emergency calls of heart attacks, car accidents, and suicides. And they were the ones who were responsible to send COVID-19 patients to hospitals. "We went from not even having our licenses to saving people's lives," Dalton told the reporter. As far as the teens were concerned, they couldn't quit their jobs. If they did, Brunet told North County Public Radio, "The community would lose the emergency operators and the drivers of the ambulance."
The three of them struggled on alone for a year until help arrived in the form of five more teens, all motivated to serve their neighbors in the town of 1, 300 residents. "When they call 911, they're expecting someone to help them," says Sophia, who was 16 when she joined.
The job is taxing. One night last fall, the crew responded to two emergency calls and a fire. They got home at 5:30 a. m, just two hours before school started. "It's definitely hard coming back from the calls and having to take an algebra test, Grayden's younger brother Gannon said. But these brave teens didn't mind the hard work. As a matter of fact, when callers met their rescuers, a lot of them would ask, "Wait, how old are you?" That was what they felt the most priceless moment.
