Another minute and Patrick Bower's house was going to be completely engulfed in the licking flames spilling into his property and over his house from his neighbor's burn pile. Five minutes was all it was going to take for Bower's entire life and belongings to just disappear.

But thanks to the East Lake Palestine Fire Department's quick response and efficient firefighting, he didn't have to wonder what his life might be like if he had to start over from the ground up.

"These guys are an organization that volunteers all their time for the community," Bowers said. "I don't think that people realize how important it is that they're there until they really need them in an emergency. Thank God for these special people- I know I do. I have a roof

over my head now, one that I wouldn't have had if it had not been for them and five little minutes."

Volunteer Fire departments all over East Texas give their all for citizens who need them- and sometimes, their sacrifice is their own lives. Two local volunteer firefighters, Kevin Williams and Austin Cheek, who died fighting a fire last year on August 3, 2007, were honored in memoriam in Noonday at a sunset celebration of their lives and their heroic story.

Bullard VFD Fire Chief Keith Newburn said that through his years of firefighting, a job passed on from his family, stories from people he's saved motivate him to keep on fighting fires.

"One day we got a call to go to a car wreck, and we had to pull this lady out of her car," Newburn said. "I found some papers around the crash that belonged to her, so I mailed them to her and a couple weeks later, we got a letter from her. She wrote that she was so thankful that we had saved her life and that it had completely changed her life. She said it was like an intervention. Those are the kinds of things that keep me at my job."

She's not the only one who feels indescribable gratitude to the men and women willingly risk everything to save a life.

Bowers plans to set up a website for the Lake Palestine VFD with a donation link for people to give to an organization he feels should be recognized.

"It is so important that they keep fighting fires," Bowers said. "You have to remember that volunteer fire departments survive on donations alone from all of usplease don't wait until you need them to discover this."