Jeff McMunn says that when it’s time for Elkmont Volunteer Fire Department’s annual bean day, the entire community – young and old – swings into action. Senior citizens bring out jars of relish canned from last summer’s garden and resurrect their favorite dessert recipes. Donations of beans and cornmeal and such come in from a local food store. The cornbread ingredients are delivered to Old Gin Barbecue where they will be mixed and baked into pans of golden brown cornbread. And Elkmont’s firefighters and their families ready themselves for a Friday night of sorting and soaking beans – enough to fill plates for the hungry hordes; enough to meet the demands of the takeout line, where beans will be sold by the plate or by the quart; enough to bring in a few thousand dollars to cover budget items such as fuel, insurance, and the purchase and maintenance of firefighting apparatus.

This year’s bean day is set for Saturday, April 8, at the Elkmont VFD in downtown Elkmont. Serving begins at 11 a.m. The menu includes pintos or white beans, slaw, relish, cornbread, dessert and drink. Cost for adults is $3.50 per plate. At $3, children’s plates include a choice of beans, pizza or hotdog. Take-outs are available by the plate ($3.50) or the quart ($4). To call ahead for a take-out order on the day of the event, phone 732-4821.

A silent auction will be conducted from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

McMunn says beans will be served from 11 a.m. “until we run out, right on up into the night.”

“This is our largest fund-raiser of the year; it has to do good,” says McMunn, who’s been fire chief since 1991.

“A lot of the desserts are donated by our senior citizens,” he says. “They really get into it. They spread the word and bring some really delicious things in here. On Friday night, the volunteer fire department families set up tables and pick beans, then set them to soak overnight. We’ll sleep a few hours, then come back around 4 to start cooking. We’ll have the beans going by 5.”

McMunn’s not sure just what year Elkmont VFD was organized, but he says the department still has the original 1951 firefighting apparatus. It’s just in storage now, he adds, but he hopes to bring it out and restore it.

McMunn’s pride and joy are the twin trucks the department bought from a VFD in Port Washington, N.Y. – trucks with an honorable tradition behind them.

“We went to Port Washington – about 15 miles out of New York City on Long Island – to inspect a truck they had for sale,” McMunn explains. “Port Washington is bigger than Athens, but it has a volunteer fire department. Most of their volunteers also are paid firefighters for New York City. That area has a big tax base; fire departments don’t lack for anything. They commonly replace their apparatus after 15 years. For us, a 15-year-old truck is practically new.

“We got the truck, and then we learned its twin sister would be out in a year. We committed for it, and so we now have identical trucks. Later we learned that one of the trucks and some Port Washington volunteers served two weeks at the World Trade Center.”

McMunn also learned that one of the Port Washington volunteer firefighters who also was a paid firefighter for New York City, was killed in the line of duty during the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The twin trucks, says McMunn, have four-door enclosed 10-man cabs, and a 1,750-gallon-per-minute pumping capacity. Both are equipped with a large-diameter supply hose, and both have the capacity for seven firefighters “to be dressed out and ready when they arrive on the scene.”

“Seven firefighters – if we should be so lucky to have that many – could step off and be ready to go to work,” he adds.

Elkmont VFD made 267 calls last year – in what McMunn terms “a slow year.” Some of those are medical calls; some are responses to accidents that require extrication equipment, or airbags capable of lifting a vehicle.

McMunn says there’s been an increase in house fires this year, but the twin trucks’ increased pumping capacity and the availability of more fire hydrants in the Elkmont area have equipped Elkmont VFD to face the firefighting challenge. They also should eventually factor into an improved ISO rating, resulting in lower premiums on home insurance, he adds.

It’s difficult to keep VFD members, says McMunn, because of burnout.

“It’s hard to retain volunteers when they have to run all those calls and then raise money, too,” he explains. “They just get burned out.”

In most cases, says McMunn, volunteer firefighters have paid jobs that contribute invaluable skills to the VFD – like the Elkmont volunteers who work for Athens Utilities and “can tell at a glance when we arrive at the scene whether or not the service has been cut off”; or the nurse whose training comes into play on medical calls; or the volunteers who have paid jobs as paramedics or EMTs or firefighters for other departments; or the Elkmont police officer whose training helps him make assessments when he arrives on the scene.

“(Elkmont police officer) Donnie Johns responds to every call – usually before us,” says McMunn. He usually can give us a size-up before we even leave the station good.”

McMunn’s wife Angie, training officer and third in command at Elkmont VFD, runs her graphics business from home so she’s available to respond to daytime emergencies. McMunn himself is a firetruck mechanic working for what he describes as “the biggest used firefighting apparatus business in the world.”

McMunn hopes Limestone County will turn out for Bean Day to help keep the noble firefighting tradition alive.