The future of Harpswell’s fire and rescue services is clouded by challenges posed by the community’s aging population, declining volunteerism, the need for private donations, climate change and other critical factors.
As with many rural areas, Harpswell’s three independent fire departments are grappling with a prolonged transition as their volunteer ranks dwindle and age, leaving no clear path toward replenishment. Historically, those volunteers have been the backbone of the town’s emergency response efforts.
More effective volunteer recruitment, advancements in technology and increased cooperation among departments can help mitigate the impact of those losses. However, experts warn that such measures may only provide temporary relief as the town’s aging population and increasingly destructive coastal weather continue to drive up demand for services.
Eventually, Harpswell may face a stark choice: Embrace increased reliance on career firefighters — with an accompanying rise in taxes — or contend with increasingly unreliable emergency services.
The town is already shifting in the direction of paid services. It has a decade-old contract with Mid Coast Hospital for 24-hour paramedic services. Since 2007, Harpswell also has taken on the cost of purchasing emergency vehicles for the three volunteer departments.
The town also employs two full-time firefighters, excluding Harpswell Fire Administrator and Emergency Management Agent Michael Drake, as well as five per diem staff members, to cover critical weekday shifts.
Harpswell budgeted about $1 million this year for fire and rescue services, including $150,000 to set aside for future vehicle purchases. In all, that’s about 14% of the town’s total 2024 budget of $7.4 million. But it’s practically inevitable that town spending on emergency services will continue rising in the coming years.
In April, the Harpswell Select Board chose an architectural firm, Portland-based Port City Architecture, to conduct a feasibility study for building a central emergency services facility on Mountain Road. That facility, which the firm has estimated would cost at least $6 million, is being considered in anticipation of additional hires. Some of the construction cost could be offset by federal aid.
Drake said the town’s fire departments are well equipped to handle the community’s immediate needs, as long as they can retain enough personnel.
“All the equipment is in fairly good shape — the volunteers and the town have worked hard to keep good equipment,” Drake said. “The only real issue is just staff.”
Services today
Harpswell’s three departments — the Cundy’s Harbor Volunteer Fire Department, Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue, and the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department — operate independently of one another and the town, but all four entities work together to serve residents.
“It is unique,” Drake said, adding that up to 80% of calls are for medical emergencies.
The Cundy’s Harbor department covers Great Island north of Stevens Point Road, the Harpswell Neck one covers all of the peninsula, and the Orr’s and Bailey department covers those islands, as well as Great Island south of Stevens Point Road.
For medical emergencies or a small problem such as a downed power line, only the department covering that location will mobilize. But for something bigger, such as a house fire, all three departments will respond.
Agreements with neighboring towns allow their firefighters to join if needed. During a fire at the School House 1913 restaurant in November, a truck from Brunswick responded to help fight the fire, while another truck from Topsham went to the Orr’s and Bailey station in case there was another emergency in town.
The town’s role in emergency services has grown as limitations of the all-volunteer model have become apparent. It pays two firefighters to be on call from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Orr’s Island station on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and at the Harpswell Neck station on Thursday and Friday. The Cundy’s Harbor station doesn’t have space for firefighters.
Meanwhile, demand for the three departments’ services — particularly medical assistance — also continues to grow, said Benjamin Wallace Jr., chief of both the Cundy’s Harbor and Orr’s and Bailey departments.
“It’s amazing how many people we have aging at home; they’re elderly and they live alone,” he said.
Wallace said many of his departments’ volunteers have other full-time jobs. Still, he noted that the town’s Mid Coast Hospital paramedics are at the ready 24/7 to assist residents from a garage on Mountain Road.
“The paramedics are going to get there faster the vast majority of the time,” Wallace said. “The paramedic service in general should be a huge comfort for people.”
Future challenges
Harpswell Neck Fire Chief David Mercier said the sustainability of his department is “in jeopardy” because of its aging cadre of volunteers and a dearth of new recruits.
While the department’s volunteer roster has 35 names on it, Mercier said only 11 of those volunteers respond regularly to fires, and just seven are young and healthy enough to perform interior firefighting. In the past, that number has been closer to 15.
“Years ago, we were flush, but there were a lot of young people in town,” he said.
The contract with Mid Coast Hospital — which Mercier pushed for — has mitigated the town’s emergency medical services problem, he said, but the firefighting side of things is a separate issue.
For example, it has been a challenge to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters who are young enough to drive emergency vehicles at night, Mercier said.
“At least on my side of town, there are no young people,” he said. “I have two young fellas in my organization, and they’re in their mid-20s, and that’s it.”
The loss of volunteers is a problem among rural fire departments nationwide, said Kimberly Quiros, spokesperson for the National Volunteer Fire Council. She said more than 65% of all U.S. firefighters are volunteers, and the percentage is even higher in rural areas.
“Volunteers save communities about $47 billion each year in the U.S.,” Quiros said. “A lot of communities don’t have that tax base or ability to have a full-time career department.”
Yarmouth Fire Chief Michael Robitaille said he understands the challenges Harpswell is facing. His cadre of volunteers has dwindled by 90%, from a high of 100 to just 10 active members.
To fill the service gap, Yarmouth has hired 14 full-time employees and hopes to add more next year. The town also has contracted with several per diem workers, often paid members of other fire departments who fill in on their days off.
Robitaille said there has been little community pushback on the tax increases required to fund those positions, but the costs keep going up. He said the key to keeping residents on board is to educate them about the benefits of having a reliable, paid firefighting staff.
The Yarmouth chief noted that replacing volunteers with career staff isn’t as easy as it sounds. Paid firefighters are in high demand and are “looking for top dollar,” he said.
“Once you go to career staffing, they’re going to (form) a union,” Robitaille said. “A year into it, be prepared for a union.”
Another potentially looming challenge to Harpswell’s fire departments is climate change. Drake, the Harpswell fire administrator, said the past winter’s destructive coastal storms stretched the fire departments to their limit.
“We’re holding our own right now,” he said. “But if we keep getting hit by this, some of the volunteers are getting older, and it’s harder for them to stay out all night.”
“My hope — and I’m crossing my fingers — is that this (recent weather) is just part of a cycle … and that we’re going to have some bad storms for a while and then we’ll get back to normal,” Drake added.
Likely solutions
Quiros, the volunteer firefighting advocate, said it’s vital for fire departments to raise awareness about the critical need for more volunteers, and the free training that’s available to help them meet ever-tightening regulatory requirements.
Smaller towns may have to look increasingly to surrounding communities for recruits, change their requirements, and be more flexible about how and when they offer training, she said.
Harpswell recently adopted a homegrown program to recruit young volunteer firefighters at a cost of $6,000 per year, which will go toward certifications, supplies and training with outside agencies.
Drake said one thing the town emphasizes in its recruiting is that volunteers don’t need to be trained, willing or able to do all types of needed work.
“There’s a job for everyone, but not every job is for everyone,” he said.
An increase in mutual aid partnerships with neighboring departments is another way small-town fire chiefs are managing the volunteer shortages, Quiros said. Harpswell already has such partnerships with Brunswick, West Bath and Topsham.
Wallace, the Cundy’s Harbor and Orr’s and Bailey chief, supports the proposal for a central emergency services facility and said he sees value in combining at least some aspects of the work being done separately by Harpswell’s three volunteer departments.
“There are so many things that we do that are duplicated in this town,” he said.
Mercier, the Harpswell Neck fire chief, said the multimillion-dollar cost to build a central facility is “a lot of money for people to wrap their head around.” However, he said it would be funded with long-term bonds to minimize the impact on taxpayers. Port City Architecture also has said the town may qualify for federal aid to reduce the cost by $1 million to $1.5 million.
New technologies also can help stretch a department’s dwindling human resources, said Waterville Fire Chief Shawn Esler.
His department, which transitioned to paid staff more than 30 years ago, has recently added computer-aided dispatch systems and aerial drones to its equipment lineup. Drones can dramatically reduce the time and manpower it takes to locate someone in need of help, he said.
Despite the availability of new technologies, Esler lamented the slow decline of volunteer firefighting, which is creating uncertainty about the future of emergency services for many small Maine communities.
“We’ve got some good people who are trying to hold the line, but the younger generation just isn’t coming in behind them,” he said.
Sam Lemonick and Jeffrey Good contributed to this story.
