The recent departures of the Milford fire department’s only two full-time employees has left the department with only per-diem staff who aren’t always in the station when calls come in.
Until September, the department was fully staffed and responding to a growing number of calls. That month, the captain and Fire Chief Zachary Carlow both resigned, with Carlow accepting a per-diem position as the acting chief until the department hired a new chief, Carlow said.
Since then, Carlow has been the sole person manning the fire station for hours on end due to staffing shortages, he said at a selectboard meeting earlier this month.
Recruitment, training and retention have plagued rural Maine fire departments for years with “ghost stations” of unstaffed fire houses dotting the state. Stations have reported rising overtime and smaller crew sizes due to shortages of qualified candidates and first responders staying with a station. Milford, which is a combination of volunteers and full-time positions, has seen shortages leaving them below the station’s minimum staffing level for about a day per week, Carlow said.
When the station is below the minimum staffing of two employees, it can only respond to medical emergencies and not fires, Carlow said.
Because of the lack of full-time positions, Carlow said the department has “good months and bad months” depending on college student and per-diem worker availability.
Carlow had to work as the sole responder for 24 hours because of a gap in staffing, he said at a meeting earlier this month.
The number of firefighters responding to calls varies because the per-diem responders don’t always hold the same schedule, Carlow said. Milford has been responding with between five and seven members on average.
The short staff and limited ability for responses has led Milford residents to question if the department is able to respond to calls in the town, Carlow said.
“The rumor that I have heard is that we are unable to provide coverage to our own calls. While there is indeed truth to this, it is more in-depth,” he said.
Old Town Fire Rescue has been assisting on Milford’s calls as part of an agreement and have been willing to pick up the extra work the open positions have created, Carlow said.
And although the department is receiving applications to fill shifts, some are more popular than others, creating gaps in the schedule.
“This is a part-time job for people. They’re coming here because they want to. They might’ve had a totally different job, and they just want to kind of be a firefighter,” Carlow said.
Milford Selectman Nick Higgins asked at a recent meeting how the fire department’s staffing schedule got so thin when they had heard of “all kinds of people that want to be here.”
Carlow cited Milford’s previous pay for those positions, which was less than what neighboring departments offer. Those positions got a pay bump in the town’s most recent budget, which Carlow said would make a “real difference” for recruitment and retention.
The job postings for the full-time fire chief and full-time firefighter and paramedic will be posted next week, Carlow said.
“The moral of the story is this situation, I believe, has proved the need to have full-time coverage with an ambulance service that runs as many calls as we do. Fortunately, It seems the town is also in agreement,” he said.
