Bill Trotter and his son Jason are Perkasie firefighters. They have worked together for the Perkasie Fire Company for some years.

Bill's job at the Perkasie Fire Company is an engineer, driver, trainer, and a regular fire fighter. Bill has worked with the company for 21 years. He also worked with the Sellersville Fire Company for a couple of years before working with the Perkasie Fire Company. He says fire fighting has changed over the years. He said that the equipment and training are different than when he first started as a volunteer, but the hazards are also different.

Bill Trotter says the best parts of working with the Perkasie Fire Company are self gratification, doing something for the community, saving lives, and helping people. The worst part of working with the company is dealing with deaths, destructive scenes, and the loss of personal property. He wanted to start working with the Fire Company because he thought it was just the right thing to do.

We asked Bill if he ever gets scared while putting out a massive fire. He said yes that he does get scared and he thinks that everyone gets scared. The scariest time in his fire fighting career was when he ran out of air at one location and another time when a wall fell down on top of him. The most memorable moment that he recalls as a fireman was when his son Jason won a chief's award; he was very proud of Jason. He said some fun things about his own volunteer career that he remembers were the fire company carnivals (no longer held) and parades. He said that he had so many memories that it's hard to say which one was the most fun.

Bill had to complete Firefighter 1 training. When he was training, volunteers had to be 18 or older to train to be a firefighter. Juniors could train at age 16, but could not put out a fire until they turned 18. He did not participate in fighting the Great Perkasie Fire of 1988 because he was on his honeymoon. Two trucks were lost in the fire. Community fund raising of  $600,000 and insurance paid for some of the things that were lost; one fire truck was re-built.

Bill was also part of bringing the brand new fire truck home to Perkasie after the Great Perkasie Fire of 1988. He was on the Design and Buy Committee and participated in bringing home the truck from Appleton, Wisconsin.

Bill thinks that in the future local fire fighters may need to be paid because of the amount of calls, and the limited number of new volunteers. There is also a lot of work required for this job. The best advice that he could give someone interested in being a fire fighter is that "you should try it out, and if you don't like it then leave, because if you don't like it, you'll get hurt." He told us that it was very rewarding for him to be a volunteer.

When we interviewed Jason he said a lot of the same things his father said. Jason started working with the company in 1991, and is still working with the company. His position was a Lieutenant from 1994-1998; since then he has been a regular firefighter. He works in a truck with a minimum of 6 people. There is a driver and officer, and four firefighters. They all work in small group teams.

Jason also gets scared when putting out a massive fire, but he said your adrenaline takes over. There is a fear factor - if you're too scared, you're going to get hurt. The scariest part of his firefighting career was when he got caught in a flash over in a basement on July 4, 1996. The most memorable moment of Jason's career was when he earned the Chief's award in 1999.

The best advice he could give someone interested in taking up a fire fighting career is to pay attention to your surroundings. He summed up the Perkasie Fire Company in these words, "The company is professional and highly trained, there is also a great group of guys and girls to work with, and there is not a lot that the company cannot overcome."