Initial response to a fire alarm requires a minimum crew of three — a fire officer and two firefighters. To provide this coverage 12 hours a day, five days a week, Harpswell employs a fire administrator, two full-time firefighters, one part-time firefighter, and several per diem firefighters who respond to calls from either Orr’s Island or Harpswell Neck. In 2025, coverage will be extended to seven days a week.
At the March 2017 Town Meeting, voters approved an appropriation to plan a central emergency services building to provide equitable response to the entire community. In 2024, on the recommendation of the town’s Fire and Rescue Planning Committee, the Select Board chose Port City Architecture to design a building located on Mountain Road with an estimated construction cost of $5.1 million. Town firefighters will respond from the central station and volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services will continue to respond from their own stations.
The board of the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department has proposed building a new station for the Cundy’s Harbor Volunteer Fire Department, upgrading the Harpswell Neck station, and staffing each of the three stations for 12 hours a day. The estimated construction costs for the two plans are similar: $5.1 million for the central station recommended by the Fire and Rescue Planning Committee and $5 million for the OBIFD plan. (The estimates discussed by the committee are $3.5 million for the new Cundy’s Harbor station and $1.5 million for renovation of the Harpswell Neck station.) The cost for an officer and two firefighters to respond 12 hours a day, seven days a week, from the central station will be $418,000 in 2025. The same response for the OBIFD plan will be $1,324,000. In fact, the central station could be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for $400,000 less than the cost of the OBIFD plan for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Reed Coles, President, Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue Board of Directors
