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Here’s a surprising stat: Canada boasts more than 85,000 volunteer firefighters.

That’s, volunteer, as in unpaid — these brave men and women risk their lives every time an alarm is sounded for very little or no remuneration.

“We do what we do because in many cases, the community needs protection,” explains Martin Bell, Nova-Scotia-based president of the Canadian Volunteer Fire Services Association. “The local municipality doesn’t necessarily have the funds to have a career fire department to provide the service that they need.”

Bell estimates that there are approximately 3500 volunteer fire stations located across Canada, with volunteers often donating upwards of 25 hours of personal time a month to ensure public safety.

They’re also responsible for purchasing their own equipment and custom-built uniform, which could add up to $6000.

“It usually costs about $2500 to equip one firefighter with a helmet, protective burn equipment, gloves, your bunker suit, which is usually heat-and-fire retardant — and that suit is normally built to the size of individual to meet their height, weight and waistline,” Bell explains. “So it’s not like you can order a couple of suits and hang them in the fire station for anyone to use.”

Bell says there’s also the breathing apparatus that you would don with a tank and mask in addition to your suit. “That would very well add another $3500,” he explains.

Volunteers undergo the same amount of rigorous training, usually 200 hours worth, before they’re ready to go out on calls.

No word on if Eminem will hit the streets to rhyme, but musicians Joseph Arthur, Mother Mother, The Midway State, Sweet Thing, Hey Rosetta! and more have all signed on to busk for change at Montreal’s Osheaga music festival, July 29 to 31, at Parc-Jean Drapeau on Ile Ste-Helene.  All money collected on-site and from online donations will support War Child, an award-winning charity that provides assistance to war-affected children. A portion of ticket sales will also go to War Child.

War Child works with children and their families to overcome the challenges of living with and recovering from conflict. In collaboration with local people, War Child aims to increase access to education, lift families out of poverty and create a protective environment for the rights of children. The charity is operational in Afghanistan, Sudan (Darfur), Uganda, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Haiti.

War Child’s first Busking For Change event was the brainchild of Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida, who busked for 12-hours straight in Toronto in 2007 and, with online donations as well, raised $22,000 for War Child Canada’s School Rehabilitation and Revitalization Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His school is now called Abala School.

Since then, dozens of established and up-and-coming musicians have participated in Busking For Change in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Hamilton, Vancouver and St. Catharines (2011 S.C.E.N.E Music Festival),  including Down With Webster, USS, Default, Arkells, Chantal Kreviazuk, Finger Eleven, Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars,  illScarlett, Neverending White Lights, Die Mannequin, Liam O’Neil of The Stills, Hollerado, Ladies of the Canyon, Winter Gloves, Jeremy Fisher, and Liam Titcomb.

Titcomb raised an astounding $50,000 in 2009 on his 50-city, 99-show national busking tour.