Photo provided to the Times Observer Joe Horst recently completed extensive training as a paramedic and is working in that capacity out of EmergyCare’s North Warren Station.

When Joe Horst joined his local fire company at the age of 18 over 10 years ago, he didn’t anticipate that the move would launch a career.

But more than 11 years later, Horst has become the newest paramedic in the county, working out of EmergyCare’s North Warren station.

Horst said he initially signed up with his hometown department — the Townville VFD & Ambulance Service — when he was 18 and jumped right into the training needed to become an EMT.

That, he said, was just about 11 years ago.

After service with EmergyCare as an EMT, Horst decided that 2020 was the right time for him to advance his training. After 1,500 hours of work, he’s now a paramedic.

“It was a year long course… a couple nights a week,” he said. “It wasn’t easy.”

And his motivation for turning the emergency medical services a career might be cliche but that doesn’t make them less true.

“I love doing it. It’s great helping people,” he said, joking he couldn’t see himself returning to a desk job.

“For me, I like the variety of it,” he said, calling it a “difficult challenge every time you roll out the door.

“It’s a tough job.”

Horst said some days all it takes is one person to say “thank you.”

“You just make their day,” he said.

He acknowledged that the most dramatic calls were the most exciting earlier in his career but he outlined how his focus has shifted.

“Some of the most rewarding,” he said, are typical medical calls for sick patients. “You made a difference to them.”

In addition to his work with EmergyCare, Horst continues to respond with his home agency in Townville so he sees the stresses on the region’s EMS system from multiple perspectives.

“(There are) not as many people doing this anymore,” he said, explaining that it places a bigger burden on those that remain. Beyond that, he said, the medical conditions the current generations of EMTs and paramedics are tasked with responding to are more complex.

“We’re trained to do more,” he said. “(There are) not as many people who want to take the time.”

But not everyone who might want to get involved with their local fire department has to go through the high-level training to be a paramedic. (For those that do pursue work in the EMS realm, he joked that you’ll find out quickly “if it’s not for you”).

“Every fire department I’ve ever known is looking for people, anyway you can help,” he said. “They won’t turn you away.”

He outlined the myriad ways people can become involved, even highlighting people that may just want to help with fundraising.

“No matter what you want to do, we can get you” involved, he said. “There’s always something to do.

“This is a job that’s pretty much open to anyone.”

This is the first in a series of periodic feature stories in conjunction with the Warren County COG Fire Services highlighting the community efforts of local first responders and raising the alarm about the impact that a decline in volunteers has had on the county’s emergency medical services response system. More information and videos can be found at facebook.com/warrencofire.