Rural volunteer fire departments under strain from population loss, COVID, other factors

Frank Morris reports today for NPR, with this vignette out of rural Paradise, Kansas, population 49, in the central part of the state: 

FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: More than 250 square miles of freshly scorched earth stretch out in three directions from tiny Paradise, Kan. In December, winds gusting up to 100 miles an hour pushed a wall of flames headlong across the rolling pasture here, torching farms and killing thousands of animals. Thick smoke, ash and dust blocked out the sun. Volunteer Fire Chief Quentin Maupin thought he'd never see his kids again when the raging blaze suddenly swept across his firetruck.

QUENTIN MAUPIN: That wall of fire was - I don't know - probably 60, 80 feet high - and both hands on the steering wheel, just holding on, thinking, this is probably it because you could hear the plastic melting and cracking. The stickers, the reflectors, the plastic flashing lights - it melted all that stuff on that truck.

MORRIS: Maupin was alone in the 18,000-pound pumper truck because, like many rural fire departments, his is chronically short-staffed.

MAUPIN: It's tough. You know, it's rural Kansas, and there just isn't that many people out here anymore. And young people - that's the other thing. Normally, our policy is you need two people on a truck. But that day, there wasn't anybody here, and I knew we just got to get a truck out there right now.

Morris also mentions rural Mississippi, and the struggle for volunteer fire departments to balance budgets and buy new equipment when typical fundraisers like spaghetti feeds or crab feeds can't be held in the era of COVID.  

Stories with similar themes out of the rural mountain west are here and here, though these focus on ambulance and EMT services.  Prior posts mentioning volunteer fire departments are here.  This one, in particular, features lots of photos of volunteer fire departments from around the country.