Treba Trotter is a unique first responder.

Trotter has been a volunteer Firefighter at the Plantersville Volunteer Fire Department for the last 15 years, including eight as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). She’s also a volunteer CPR instructor at the American Heart Association.

“It’s not hard,” Trotter said. “We do what we have to do. I love staying busy.”

Being a first responder began as a family thing for Trotter. Her late husband, Harlan Trotter, was assistant fire chief of Plantersville Volunteer Fire Department and a foreman at Bush Hog. He died on April 16, 2007.

“I never think about it following a family tradition,” Trotter said. “It’s just something that I do.”

Trotter said her two children always accompanied them on fires and accidents.

“The kids used to go with us on accidents,” Trotter said. “But they didn’t become first responders as adults.”

Trotter’s regular job is doing plants and pulling orders at Wright’s Nursery & Greenhouse in Plantersville.

“If we’re really busy at the nursery, I don’t respond,” Trotter said. “It has to be really bad for me to go out. It helps that my boss works at the fire department. In the springtime, we’re real busy at the nursery. We have a good fire department.”

Trotter is a 1975 graduate of Cherokee High School in Centre and moved to Dallas County in 1988.