When Mokeira Gekonge of Montgomery County decided she wanted to volunteer as a firefighter, she never expected her mother to join her at the fire academy, writes Christie Ileto for 6ABC.

“I was really inspired by her desire to want to be a volunteer firefighter,” Mokeira’s mother Betsy said. “I thought this would be something fun to do with her.”

The rising high school senior and her mom completed the 180 hours of instruction from August 2022 to June 2023 and now they both volunteer with the Barren Hill fire company.

The United States is facing a nationwide firefighter shortage. In Pennsylvania, there were only 38,000 volunteer firefighters across the state in 2018. This was down from 300,000 in the 1970s, according to the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute.

Read more about this inspiring pair at 6ABC.

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More on volunteer firefighter shortage.