Six recruits became firefighters Sunday at a pinning ceremony held at the Alvaton Fire Department.

The recruits completed over 175 hours of intense training and also took a certification exam. All the hard work paid off Sunday, as the recruits with pinned with a firefighters badge and they received their official helmets.

The Alvaton Fire Department says the whole community should be proud of the new firefighters, who take time out of their schedule to volunteer when the community may need them the most.

"They worked hard, and it's all to volunteer. So the community should be as proud of them as everybody else because these are going to be your new ones responding to the medical calls, the car accidents, the fire alarms, the structure fires," says Alvaton Deputy Chief Brad Harper.

Fire officials say it is important whenever they can add new recruits and firefighters since the amount of volunteers has decreased in recent years.