In the next few days, Kelly Worthy will answer the final alarm of a 27-year career of fighting fires in Warren County.

But it won’t change him.

“Each time I hear a siren, I’ll have to go see what it is,” said Worthy, who coordinates fire responses among the six volunteer fire departments outside Vicksburg and manages garbage pickup in the county.

With his retirement official Thursday, he says the moments he’ll remember most aren’t about specific fires, but a spirit of brotherhood in the county’s six volunteer fire departments.

“It’s a big family in there,” Worthy said. “I think people realized that after Sept. 11. We may have disagreements sometimes, but we’re all still brothers,” he said.

Worthy, 60, became Warren County’s fire coordinator in 1992 after seven years with the Northeast Volunteer Fire Department. He also has farmed hogs and worked in heavy industry.

Through it all, he has only one physical scar from the lives he’s lived — a pair of spark marks on his upper arm.

“It’s been a dangerous job,” Worthy said. “But, we’ve never had a firefighter fatality.”

Chuck Tate, treasurer of the Culkin Fire Department and a past chief in the county’s second-biggest volunteer district, says Worthy’s laid-back style through the years has been an asset in the 85- to 100-person force.

“Kelly doesn’t talk a lot. But, when he does, he usually has something to say,” said Tate, a 25-year volunteer. “He’s done a good job of dealing with the Board of Supervisors. He’s been a good person to have in the middle of a lot of personalities.”

The job Worthy has held might continue as it is or it might be split, a decision to be made by the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

During Worthy’s time in office, programs on the state level have expanded enough to fund new trucks and equipment, including new trucks in five of the six districts. A new brush truck is to be added at Eagle Lake next week. The State Fire Rebate Insurance Program, which pays back fire insurance premiums each year to local governments statewide to maintain low-cost fire insurance, paid $125,893.25 to Warren County in 2011, up about $13,000 over the past five years. The Rural Fire Truck Acquisition Assistance Program was left unfunded during the recent session of the Legislature. The fund has financed about 70 percent of the cost of modern-day pumper trucks, which can reach $200,000.

The days of “telephone trees” that led emergency calls to Vicksburg’s Central Fire Station are over, but reminders of the old days decorate Worthy’s office at the Board of Supervisors building on Jackson Street. Model fire trucks are on the shelves and a 1946 Mack fire truck depicted in front of Vicksburg’s No. 7 Fire Station on Worthy’s wall holds a special place in local firefighting history.

“That was in 1985, when the city sold it,” Worthy said. “Warren Pace, Sheriff Martin Pace’s brother, did that one, so I’ll give it up if Martin wants that.”