Rural fire services increasingly rely on older volunteers, providing an opportunity to examine the challenges of the ageing volunteer base that is underway in rural communities. To advance knowledge on the phenomena of ‘older voluntarism’, a case study of a rural volunteer fire department in Ontario, Canada was undertaken, drawing on semi-structured interviews with 24 fire service members. Findings from an iterative collaborative qualitative analysis demonstrate that the dynamics and intergenerational challenges of ageing volunteers and rural interconnectedness and cohesion combine to influence the experiences and sustainability of older volunteers, volunteer-based services and ageing rural places. The discussion advances a framework for understanding personal, program and community sustainability of rural ageing, and highlights emergent questions for research, policy and practice to guide further research into the sustainability of older voluntarism in ageing rural communities.

农村消防服务越来越依赖老年志愿者，这提供了一个机会来检查农村社区正在进行的老龄化志愿者基地所面临的挑战。为了加深对“老年自愿主义”现象的认识，对加拿大安大略省的农村志愿消防部门进行了案例研究，对 24 名消防人员进行了半结构化访谈。迭代协作定性分析的结果表明，老龄化志愿者的动态和代际挑战以及农村的相互联系和凝聚力共同影响了老年志愿者、基于志愿者的服务和老龄化农村地区的体验和可持续性。讨论提出了一个框架，以了解农村老龄化的个人、计划和社区可持续性，