LINCOLNVILLE, Maine — As volunteer fire departments across the country struggle to fill ranks, one Maine town is trying to get ahead of the problem before it's too late. The Lincolnville Volunteer Fire Department is starting a reserve corp.
Its members will assist firefighters in emergencies as support staff, monitoring radios, controlling traffic, and helping in auxiliary roles.
Peter Rollins, who has served as a volunteer firefighter for 30 years, started the program as a way to free up fully trained firefighters from jobs that could be done by members of the public. He hopes it will attract people who want to serve their town, but don’t have the time to become a fully certified firefighter.
"When someone moves in the area, we will approach them and say, 'Hey how 'bout join the fire department?' And what’s often said is, 'I have little kids,' or, 'I just started a new job,' or, 'I'm very busy.'"
There are no specific training requirements to become a reserve; rather, it’s based on what you're planning to do for the department.
"Whatever you’re comfortable with and whatever you’re interested in, we’ll train you how to do it," Rollins added.
The reserves initiative comes as volunteer departments around the country rethink how to attract more people to the often difficult, unpaid work of emergency services.
One report from the National Fire Protection Association, published in 2020, shows that while the number of professional firefighters has increased over the last several decades, the number of volunteers has gone down. In a state like Maine, where nearly 70 percent of fire departments are volunteer, that can have a devastating impact in towns like Lincolnville.
"We’re a community of 2,300 people," Town Administrator David Kinney said on Monday. "We couldn’t do what we do without volunteers."
But perhaps no one has a deeper understanding of the impact an effort like this can have than Chief Don Fullington.
A trim red-haired man in his middle age, Fullington has been volunteering as a firefighter for more than two decades. In that time, he’s seen how the profession has changed.
"I think volunteer firefighting, due to all the training requirements, has become much more stringent," he said from the station Tuesday. "You can’t have anybody doing anything that they're not trained to be doing."
He and Rollins hope the reserves program will serve as a blueprint that other towns across Maine can replicate. Before that happens, though, it will have to succeed in generating interest.
Lincolnville Fire Department is hosting an open house for anyone interested in the reserves program at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 20.