Boo Boo Farley is just like a lot of people in Selma and Dallas County. He’s a family man, and he loves hunting, fishing and riding four-wheelers.

But what makes him different than most people is that he volunteers to run into burning buildings to save people.

“You never want to see somebody’s house burn up, but it’s an adrenaline rush when you get to go inside one that’s on fire,” Farley said. “You’re adrenaline is pumping, and you really don’t think about anything. You just think about going in the house and trying to save their stuff.”

Farley is the chief of Potter Station Volunteer Fire Department on County Road 44.

“I love doing it,” Farley said. “I just love helping folks, helping the community and helping whoever I can.”

He joined the department with his father, Garry Farley Sr., when he was just 17 years old.

“My dad was in the Selma-Dallas County Rescue Squad for 15 to 20 years, and then they opened up the volunteer fire department in my neighborhood, which is in Potter Station, and he joined,” Farley said. “I had just turned about 17, so I joined with him.”

While he isn’t fighting fires or working wrecks, Farley works in the service center at Reliable Cadillac GMC.

He’s married and has an eight-year-old stepson and a two-year-old daughter.

Farley has been with the department for 24 years, and has served as its chief for the last 14 years.

“We fight house fires, go to wrecks and we back up the Selma Fire Department if they need us,” he said. “We get up all  hours during the night. It doesn’t matter. And I’m able to leave work, which is a good thing.”

The department has 12 to 14 volunteer firefighters, and responds to around three fires a year as well as multiple car accidents.

He said they also respond to brush and grass fires.

“It’s hard to find somebody to volunteer, but everybody in Potter Station knows they have a good fire department,” he said. “We also back up Marion junction, Beloit, Summerfield and Valley Grande, so we’re tied in with them.”

Farley said he lives right by the fire station, so there is always a quick response