Background There is a growing number of community first responder (CFR) groups in the UK who provide emergency care in their local communities.

Objective To understand why people volunteer for, and continue to be active in CFR groups.

Design Qualitative study, using focus groups of CFRs. Five focus groups were conducted, with a total of 35 participants.

Results Ideas of altruism and a sense of community were found to be important to volunteers, though motives were complex and individual. Many volunteers had some sort of prior experience relevant to the CFR role, either as health professionals or first-aiders.

Conclusion Though volunteers' motives had some commonalities with the limited literature, there were issues that were unique to the CFR context. The flexibility and autonomy of CFR volunteering was particularly attractive to volunteers. It remains to be seen how sustainable the CFR model is.