Cologne Volunteer Fire Company (CVFC) is located in the Township of Hamilton (Atlantic County) New Jersey. This fire company is composed by approximately 26 active members (20 Firefighters, 1 Engineer, 3 Lieutenants, 1 Captain, 1 Assistant Chief and 1 Fire Chief) which dedicate their own time and sometimes resources to save lives and protect the property of those in need. As a 100% volunteer fire company the CVFC firefighters are part of the 823,350 volunteer (2005 USFA statistics data) across the nation that perform fire suppression duties and provide emergency services to local communities.

Being part of a local volunteer fire company is an opportunity for people to give back to the local community. This also helps local governments and township residents to reduce the cost of maintaining a 24/7/365 fire department staff. This is one of the reasons why 73% of all firefighters across the USA are volunteers and the rest are career or part time. In the last few years the amount of volunteers in the fire service has decreased substantially. This is due to a variety of reasons attributed to changes in lifestyles and the time required to respond to emergency calls and to train in order to maintain a high level of proficiency when an emergency call is received. For this reason the CVFC’s main goal is to increase its membership in order to provide a reliable service to the local community and neighboring areas.