Welcome to the Unpaid Professionals, a fortnightly podcast where we will be sharing the real stories of the different members of the 566+ Western Australian Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades with you and delving into what it is that drives them to volunteer and what it's really like behind the scenes. Over 75% of the 26 000 firefighters in Western Australia are members of the 566+ different Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades in the state, these volunteers belong to the bush fire service.  A huge difference between volunteers belonging to this service and the other firefighting services in the state is that they are administered and trained by their local government, depending on which region they belong to, whereas firefighters in the other services are administered and trained by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).  There are 113 different local governments that the 566+ brigades belong to, spanning all over WA in all sorts of different climates and regions.  Unpaid Professionals is authorized by Bushfire Volunteers - ABN: 88 309 326 546 www.bushfire.org.au Audio track "Firecall," © Sam Bell (2020) .