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. •Rural volunteer fire departments act as catalyst for rural community sustainability.•Experiences of volunteer firefighters provide insights into the challenges of older voluntarism in ageing rural places.•The dynamics of age within the department pose challenges for the sustainability of rural volunteer fire departments.•Challenges of older voluntarism are mitigated through cohesion of volunteer-based programs and ageing rural communities.•Age and the nature of rural communities raise important questions regardings the sustainability of older voluntarism.