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The spark for a volunteer fire department in Jeffersonville came in the winter of 1951.

That’s when Bayne Smith Sr., a local insurance agent, traveled 20 country miles down U.S. 80 on a business call. While passing through Dudley, he observed the town’s volunteer fire department doing an impressive job putting out a fire.

When Smith attended the next scheduled meeting of the Jeffersonville Civic Club, he had a question for the group.

Jeffersonville was larger than Dudley. Shouldn’t it have a volunteer fire department, too?

Weary of having to rely on a “bucket brigade” -- and running the risk of half the town going up in flames before those pails could be refilled -- the club voted to pursue fire protection for the geographic midsection of the state.

There were no magic wands. It wasn’t going to happen without a lot of hard work and planning. By the following year, the state had established guidelines requiring volunteer firefighters to be trained in a 40-hour course.

In August 1962 -- 50 years ago this month -- the Jeffersonville men rode their fire hoses into history. Collectively, they became the first volunteer department in the state to complete the certification.

That has long been a point of pride in this tiny, no-stoplight town. Especially for local historians like attorney Jim Maddox, who has practiced law in Jeffersonville for more than a half-century and is one of the original 16 blaze-fighting trailblazers.

He remembers when he and his fellow rookies were told a north Georgia city was hurrying to complete the certification requirements first. The Jeffersonville boys doubled up on their training to four hours a week so they could touch the wall first like a winning Olympic swimmer.

Jeffersonville Mayor Shannon Hart was determined to make sure the golden anniversary of the volunteer firefighters “first” did not slip by unnoticed. A reception is planned for 4 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 20 at City Hall to honor the handful of men who are still living and reflect on the loyal service of those who no longer are here to share in the celebration.

“What they did was special,” said Hart. “They were dedicated and unselfish. They made many sacrifices, were away from their families and risked their lives.”

The firefighters came from all walks of life -- preachers, attorneys, insurance agents and businessmen. Among the most well-known volunteer firefighters was the late Earl Hamrick, who retired as Twiggs sheriff in 1988 after 48 years of public service. At the time, he had held office longer than any sheriff in the U.S.

The equipment was archaic by today’s standards. The men might have been fighting fires with garden hoses had it not been for their resourcefulness.

“We had to beg, borrow and steal some of it,” said Maddox, laughing.

Their first vehicle was a restored Air Force crash truck from Cochran Field. It was purchased for $1 from salvage. The men managed to get the engine running and the tires turning, but the tank capacity was only 150 gallons. To compound the problem, there were no fire hydrants in Jeffersonville. The city’s water pressure was so low it could not produce the necessary stream of water. And the rural areas of the county all drew water from wells.

The board of education donated an old school bus, and the firefighters chopped off the top and mounted an old 1,500-gallon gas tank to the chassis. The men had to learn the lessons of gravity the hard way. They did not have baffles mounted on the tank to restrain the flow of the water and prevent it from shifting. It was an adventure when the bus rounded the curves on some country dirt road.

They knocked on doors at local businesses, asking for money to pay for boots, jackets, helmets and other firefighting gear. They held fish fries and bake sales to raise the funds to make it all happen.

And it did.

The first “fire station” was a turn-of-the-century building downtown.

Appropriately enough, it was on Ash Street.

The building had once been a Chero-Cola bottling plant, a casket factory, a storage facility for the state highway department and later a stable for some of Hamrick’s prize quarter-horses.

Over the years, the men responded to every fire in the county, and never got paid a nickel. They often had to leave their jobs, the supper table or a soft pillow in the middle of the night to answer a call. They always kept their helmets and jackets in their trucks and cars.

There was no such thing as “911.” Any emergency was phoned to Hamrick’s house at “3222” and started the old-fashioned “phone tree’ system of calling from house-to-house.

They arrived to find burning barns, brush fires and alley fires. Once, lightning struck the courthouse. They learned to deal with backyard grills gone awry and backdrafts. They were in harm’s way more times than they cared to remember.

After a young man was tragically killed on Main Street in a motorcycle accident, Hart’s Mortuary in Macon donated an old Cadillac hearse to serve as the city’s first ambulance for hospital transport. Maddox said the hearse “ran like a scalded dog,” and the other firefighters began taking an additional 40-hour course on first aid and first responders.

Maddox continued to volunteer as a firefighter for 37 years. He reflects on those early days with a measure of sentimentality.

To recognize Jeffersonville as the state’s first certified volunteer department, Zack Cravey, the former state fire marshal, traveled to Jeffersonville in the summer of 1962 to present the group with its certificates.

Cravey gave every volunteer a commemorative photograph and tie clasp of a fireman’s axe.

Maddox still has his tie clasp. He plans to hold on to it, like the memories.