MAINE, USA — Fire and emergency medical service departments have struggled to recruit since before the pandemic, but as COVID rages on, it’s becoming even more challenging for departments to hire new employees.
That’s why the Maine Fire Chiefs’ Association asked Gov. Janet Mills for help.
In a letter to Mills, the association asked for a meeting with her office and highlighted several things causing financial burdens on departments across the state.
“We were trying to figure out ways we could attract people—attract younger people into this career field,” Darrell White, Presque Isle fire chief and president of the association, said.
He said it all comes down to dollars and cents.
“It’s not a high-paying job due to it being a tax base,” he said.
The association asked for more funding for the Maine Office of State Fire Marshal and the Maine Fire Service Institute and financial support for the Length of Service Award Program, which provides a small retirement to folks working in volunteer fire departments.
White added that increasing MaineCare reimbursements, like the state did for direct care workers in long-term care facilities, would also help.
“If our MaineCare system paid a better percentage on our ambulance rates, that would, in turn, allow us to increase our hourly rates for employees,” White said.
White said the Maine Fire Chiefs’ Association has not yet heard back from Mills. Her office did, however, release a statement to NEWS CENTER Maine:
“The governor thanks the Maine Fire Chiefs’ Association for their letter, and she shares their concerns. Maine’s firefighters and emergency first responders provide crucial, life-saving services for Maine people, and the governor is committed to working with the Legislature to address this longstanding problem—and one that nearly every state is confronting.
“In fact, this past October, the American Ambulance Association wrote to Congress that ‘our nation’s EMS system is facing a crippling workforce shortage, a long-term problem that has been building up for more than a decade.’ According to data from Maine EMS, Maine lost an average of 184 EMT and ambulance workers each year between 2013 and 2018.
“The Mills administration and the Legislature have taken steps to begin addressing the issue, many of which are in line with the initiatives the Maine Fire Chiefs outlined in their letter. For example, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services is implementing a MaineCare rate increase for EMS in rural areas this coming April. The governor also signed into law LD 242, which provides funding for the Maine Fire Service Institute to build, fix, or replace regional live-fire service training facilities across Maine. The governor also signed into law LD 1316, which provides—for the first time ever—funding for the Maine Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP). In each of her budgets, the governor has increased funding to the Maine Community College System for workforce development initiatives, and she has also included EMS in her Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan’s health care workforce initiatives.
“The governor will continue to work with the Maine Fire Chiefs’ Association, lawmakers, and others to strengthen Maine emergency medical services.”
Read the full letter below.