Ryan Williams joined Community Fire Company, New Tripoli, in 2005.

"Ever since I was a kid, fire trucks and ambulances were my biggest interest," Williams said. "All my comforters and everything were fire-company oriented."

Williams is a vehicle rescue technician and has basic essentials and wildlands training. He is an engineer, which makes him eligible to drive the trucks, and also to help care for them.

"Rescue is not the normal thing a 15- to 16-year-old does," he said.

Williams, who joined as a junior firefighter, lives in the townhouses along Madison Street.

He would run to the fire station because his mother would not get up and take him when a call came in the middle of the night.

Now, she brags about his work with the company and wears shirts and jackets with the fire company logo.

His fiancée will volunter for the fire company, too.

Williams who has lived in the area for 13 years, has an older brother. They are both in the Pennsylvania National Guard. His brother would like to join the company but his work schedule does not permit it at this time.

As a junior firefighter, he used to wash the trucks and help care for them. He took a driving class and Chief Engineer Scott Koenig, suggested he drive to qualify on the trucks.

Koenig recommended him to Chief Peter Christ and he was accepted as a driver and became an engineer.

William's nickname is "Wacker," someone who is really involved with something.

This name is what William's is known as, not only with the fire company, but in school and the community.