Maine Fire Departments

[boothbay10]

Let all the maine fire departments get active here on firehouse .com lets all get talking about whats going on in maine lets hear it

[Rossco]

By the number of replies here, you'd think there wasn't much going on at all, or it's just not being talked about.
Today, I started planning some brush fire trainings, and will get my personal forestry gear checked out soon. 2 feet of snow still on the ground, but at the rate it's melting, brush fire season could be here in a couple weeks. As soon as the campers come back, and start cleaning up their yards, and doing foolish things with fire, the tower will start calling us to smokes to check out.

Other than that, and the other hundred things that volunteers do, nothing really going on here.

[Firefighter164]

Well it is Brush season now. Gray just had a 9 acre fire on Sunday 4/17. Mutual aide from New Gloucester, Cumberland, Raymond, Windham along with the Forest Ranger responded. Units were on scene about 6 hours.

[leylandauto]

Kinda new thread and EMS related but it is Maine specific. For agencies finalizing the change over or currently using software for run reporting, what software are you going with and/or what softwares are acceptable.

[KeithA8]

I'm not from Maine but I visit often. I have land in southern Maine (Alfred) and a house in northern Maine (Sinclair). But I live in Connecticut.

[leylandauto]

I remember you posting before. Isn't the land on Avery Rd?
I live just outside the village.

[KeithA8]

Yes it is. I remeber you.

[Rossco]

Sinclair... Are the sled trails good around your place?
I know this isn't sledmaine.com, but had to ask.

[KeithA8]

The BEST!!! Sno Goer magazine rates it #1 in the north east every year! Come on up and try it. The Madawaska / Fort Kent area is where I recomend. Grooming every day!!! You meet people from New Jersey, Penn, New York which says a lot for some one to drive that far to ride. I go up there because it's where my family originates from. See you on the trails!

[Rossco]

Absolutely, we ride Sherman to Fort Kent all the time, maybe I've passed through Sinclair, but just cant picture it.
When it gets closer to sled time, we should pm and possibly ride a bit.

[KeithA8]

Sounds good to me. albert_keith_g@sbcglobal.net

[leylandauto]

Geez, you have your summer place within minutes of 'rossco' and I(right between us as a matter of fact). Tell us when you are coming up and I will bring the beer!

[Rossco]

I've seen several conversations mentioning beer, so you know he must be a good guy.:)

[KeithA8]

Do you guys ride ATV's? I ride Alfred with the ATV every once in a while. We should get together for that too. I drag that up to Sinclair for the fourth of July also.

[Rossco]

I don't have an atv, but a lot of people ride them around here. You have to be careful now with Maines new atv laws. You're supposed to have written permission from every landowner, and the wardens have been out with their ticket book, so I hear. We could get together anyways, if nothing else, to shoot the breeze and throw back laylands brew.:D
Carl, do you have any of the homemade variety?

[Fire304]

You guys got any info on whats going on in Detroit?

Boothbay10, you work down the harbor up the hill?

[tonkajoe3965]

Hi im new on this im fire chief of small downeast town past ellsworth like to say hello and hope to talk to some of you.

[fostah182]

Hey folks.. MA FF/Paramedic here, and I'm looking for a busier department. I work for a small town in south eastern MA, and would like to continue full time, for a larger department... Can anyone send some general info my way? EMS requirements,Academy requirements, pay rates, etc?
Thanks a lot...

[leylandauto]

What is a "busier dept" to you? Are you looking for fire or medical? what are you making now? The pay up here will probably be not as much but then again, you can afford to buy a house up here :)

[Fire304]

There are only 5-6 cities/towns in Maine with full time departments at all, I doubt you'll find anything "busy" up this way. Most larger communities are combination departments with fairly busy EMS runs per shift, but mostly due to the small number of people working per shift.

[leylandauto]

Well, lessee, there are four depts with multi-man shifts in York County alone. there is Sanford, Biddeford, OOB, Saco. This does not count some of the places with two man crews like Ogunquit and Wells and York. Then there is Cumberland County with Portland, S Portland. Scarboro, Westbrook, Gorham and some smaller places. There is Lewsiton, Auburn, Augusta, Gardiner, Brunswick, Bath, Rockland, Bangor, Brewer, Caribou, Presque Isle, BNAS, PNSY, Loring,
Many of these are not huge but Portland, L/A, Bidd/Saco, Bangor/Brewer, Sanford can keep you busy. Not many places in the country are catching much fire nowadays. Portland has 200 personnel. I dunno when Portland is testing next. They have sep fire and EMS within the dept. They do CPAT in the Portland area.
There are indeed a lot of combo depts in Maine. The call depts die slow but they are dying.

[fostah182]

I'm looking for 7000+ runs a year, really... My current dept will hit about 1500- 1600 runs this year... I love being a fire fighter, but I'm not a paramiedic "so I could get on a department" I'm a paramedic because I like being a paramedic... I'm looking for a department where there's room for advancement... I'm coming from a 12 FF, 4 LT, 1 Dep, 1 Chief, 6 Call FF department, and there's no where to go... I'm almost positive I'll have to take a pay cut (about $17 here for Step 2 FF/medic on a 5 step plan)... but if I can afford a house and be busy, I'll do it... I hope that covers the questions... thanks for the help...

[Fire304]

Well, that sort of volume in a fire only FD would be Portland, Lewiston, or Bangor, I believe most other "big" Me FD's are medical as well as fire and you'd need FF2/EMT-I (Rockland & South Portland for sure). As for being able to aford the cost of living, good luck, housing is ridiculous up here, although there may be some cheap property in Rockland since MBNA pulled out. Median house in Cumberland County (greater Portland) is $270,000, hard to afford on a starting pay.

Frankly, you'd be much better off looking south and west or even the metro Boston area for a busy FD with cheap housing available. Compiteition for available slots at full time FD's is extreme. Two years ago I went out for Portland (they have a 2 year hiring cycle regardless of need), there were zero openings and none were anticipated (we were voting on a bill simular to your Prop 2 1/2 that would have cripled municiple goverments). There were 600 of us who took the written, and let me stress there were no openings and none anticipated for that cycle. They did eventually hire 8 but not until very near the end of the cycle and after the bill was defeated. The new cycle started this spring so (if memory serves) you'll have to wait until 2007 to apply.

South Portland hires on an annual cycle, they are a combination department which requires FF2/EMT-I and encourages you get your medic.

Check out the towns we've mentioned, they all have websites and usually have info about FD openings if you dig hard enough. At worse you can find the HR's phone number and give them a call.

[leylandauto]

Well numbers can be tricky. You have to separate medical from fire and then take into account the number of stations/trucks/and people on duty. Medcu (Portland Fire EMS) does 9k+ runs per year. The bulk of that is done by Medcu 5 intown doing about 5k a year as I understand. The other two break up the other 4k. Sanford (yes, my dept) has thier lead rescue (my truck) doing about 2200 runs last year and that does not count fire responses in that total. I think you will find that many depts on a per capita basis do similar levels of calls (if they are in an urban setting [defining that by the area made up of the people from the lower socioeconomic levels in dense neighborhoods]). Biddeford/Saco/ and Sanford do not have as high a competition level for openings. A person needs to have EMT B and a pulse when we hire them for a fire position. For a Medic slot you need to have a medic ticket and a pulse. We then mandate ff1-2 before completion of the proby period but that is not really enforced due to money problems in the training budget and a shortage of ff2 programs of late. All three of these towns are 1-1.5 north of Boston. There are options up here for jobs and housing (if you do not want to live on the coast and Midcoast). Just my $.02 worth. I hope your town fires up a full time program soon. I am sure they will and good luck no matter where you go. If you come to Maine to check anything out I always buy the first pint at Federal Jacks :-)

[fostah182]

My town is full time... And I am a MA state P, with FF1, from MA state Fire academy. I work in a 17 full time member (including deputy) department, with no room in the upper levels. Four LT's, no captains, and no where to go... Just exploring my options...

[CaptainGonzo]

Psoted by Fire 304
Frankly, you'd be much better off looking south and west or even the metro Boston area for a busy FD with cheap housing available.

There are busy departments in the Metro Boston and MetroWest suburbs, but the housing isn't cheap! We have a lot of jakes who live in Marlborough and work in Wayland, Sudbury, Southborough and Weston becuase there is no way they could afford to live in the town they work ( and our housinfg prices aren't cheap, either!)

Posted by LeylandAuto
If you come to Maine to check anything out I always buy the first pint at Federal Jacks :-)

Great brewpub! The Bluefin Stout is excellent!

[mew728]

There are 4 100% full time dept. Portland Lewiston Auburn and Bangor. Check one of those out, any of them will keep you busy.