It's hot, dusty and smoky on Beaver Creek Road Thursday as Jerry Shepherd calls out orders to the 29 volunteer firefighters.

These folks know the routine. The Meriwether fire is coming their way and they are going to try to keep it from burning the 10 or so homes tucked into the trees along Beaver Creek, east of Nelson. They're from Eastgate, Montana City, the Canyon Ferry area, East Valley, West Valley, Baxendale, and Lewis and Clark County.

Just the day before, on Wednesday, the Forest Service had planned a burnout here. Their hotshot crew would light small fires between Beaver Creek Road and a line they had etched north and another line built by a bulldozer. They'd torch those grasses and shrubs near the line, then extinguish the flames so when the main fire came through it wouldn't have anything to burn.

The 29 volunteers' role was to ensure that if the burnout grew out of control, they would protect the structures.

But on Thursday, like Wednesday, the burnout was called off. So the volunteers picked up their hoses, strung out at the homes. They repacked their engines. They headed home, not knowing if they would be called out today. Or tomorrow. Or the next day, next week or next month.

"They are the unsung heroes of the fire world," said Mike Cole, the ranger for the Helena National Forest's Townsend District. "Those are your neighbors risking their lives to save your houses."

Hundreds of people in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Jefferson counties, as well as elsewhere in Montana, form the bulk of the state's emergency response force.

Jordan Alexander is one of those guys. For the past 18 years, he's volunteered to hold people's hands after a car crash, hose down homes when they're on fire or leave his job as a metal worker whenever the page is issued for the Baxendale volunteer fire department -- which is tasked with protecting lands a good hour to the west of Nelson, near MacDonald Pass.

The first eight hours on a wildfire are on his dime. After that, Alexander and other firefighters are paid comparably to that of state firefighters. But in the meantime, he's taking off work to make sure his homes don't burn in his extended neighborhood.

He proudly shows off their $283,000 fire truck, purchased by Baxendale with the help of taxpayers and a federal grant. He notes they have 1,000 gallons of water, which when mixed with foam makes for 3,000 gallons to spray on a home. Add a bit of compressed air to the equation and they have 30,000 gallons to retard flames.

"We initiated it on the Blue Cloud fire (which burned west of Helena last month) and it did exactly what it was supposed to do," Alexander says proudly, his chin covered with a day's growth of stubble and his yellow firefighting jumpsuit stained with ash.

They volunteer their time for a variety of reasons. For Brian Pierce, a volunteer whose day job is a database administrator for Travel Montana, it is a way he and his fiancee tithe. For Rick LePage, a network administrator for the state, it's the neighborly thing to do.

But Shepherd, who is the West Valley volunteer fire chief, wonders how long the volunteer system can adequately respond to increased calls. When he started 17 years ago, they had about 90 calls -- medical, car crashes or fires -- each year. In July alone, the volunteers ran on 80 calls, most of them fires.

He notes that last year, between training, meetings and calls, the typical volunteer put in 180 hours. Shepherd isn't sure that's sustainable time.

"You can't do this everyday, between family commitments and work commitments," Shepherd said. "If this stuff that's going on now were happening in September, I'd say 'OK, we're near the end of summer.'

"But now, we have an entire month ahead of us. What are we going to do if this keeps up? Oh God, I don't know. Seriously, I don't know. Pray for snow, because rain ain't going to cut it."

Cole and others within the U.S. Forest Service hope the volunteers don't reach a breaking point, because they're an integral part of the firefighting strategy.

"Without them, we would be hard pressed to control all the fires," Cole said. "The rurals (fire departments) are often the closest ones to a fire and if we're not out there at the same time, they're out there before us. Then they have to go back to their regular jobs.

"This is a really dedicated group, and they're our definite partners. But they've been running and gunning for a long time."

Eve Byron can be reached at 447-4076 or by e-mail at eve.byron@helenair.com