After 32 years, Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask plans to step down at the end of the month when members of the Alna Volunteer Fire Department elect a new slate of officers for the coming year. Trask was 23 years old when he was first elected fire chief in 1994. (LCN file)
Barring a last minute reversal of fortune, later this month members of the Alna Fire Department will elect a new fire chief for the first time in 32 years.
Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask confirmed plans to step down when his term ends following the department’s annual meeting later this month. Trask said the decision was prompted by his choice to accept a promotion at Bath Iron Works in Bath.
Formerly a welder, Trask is now in material control management, controlling the flow of materials through BIW’s Kitting Terminal.
“Everything that goes on the ship goes through there,” he said
Trask said he has been doing both roles for the last six months but his relatively new second shift schedule dramatically impacts his ability to devote his full attention and time to the fire department.
“I kind of knew if I took the position it would cost me the fire chief position,” Trask said. “That’s why I knew it was time for me to go. I think it was just time.”
Trask will officially remain fire chief through the end of March when the department meets to elect a new chief. Trask said he hopes Alna Assistant Fire Chief Mike Averill gets the job, adding he expects that to happen.
“It makes sense,” Trask said. “It should be seamless transition, I believe. He’s been my assistant chief for years. He does a great job and he’s going to do a great job.”
Assuming Averill is elected, it will complete a unique sequence in the Alna Fire Department’s leadership Task said.
Trask’s father, Austin Trask, was Alna’s fire chief from 1982-1989. Austin Task was succeeded by Mike Averill’s father Jeff Averill. In 1994 Jeff Averill was succeeded by Mike Trask, who now expects to give way to Mike Averill.
In a December 2024 interview with The Lincoln County News, Trask said he never gave much thought to being chief before he was first elected in 1994. At the time he was 23 years old and had served as Jeff Averill’s assistant chief for one year.
“I never said, ‘Hey, I’m the guy,’ because I never thought I was,” Trask said. “There were several other guys capable of course, but they made up their mind who was going to be the next chief, and when they had the meeting that’s who they picked.”
Over the course of Trask’s tenure, he spearheaded efforts to modernize the fire department’s equipment and embraced opportunities to refine the mutual aid system that coordinates response efforts among neighboring departments. Today, firefighters from different departments frequently work together and train together, which was not the case early in his career, Trask said.
Trask was instrumental in the Alna Fire Department adopting a foam fire suppression system and he leaves with a functioning junior firefighter program that launched during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
“Every since COVID when the kids were all sitting home doing nothing,” Trask said. “I dragged my son down. A couple others guys in the department dragged their sons and it just kind of rolled on from there. Ever since anytime a junior shows up we put them in and we treat them just like a regular fireman.”
If a junior firefighter completes all the training available to them while they are minors, they could theoretically be fully certified Firefighter I and II the day they turn 18, Trask said.
“Brett Butterfield is running that now. He is doing a great job,” Trask said.
Trask said he is proud to step down as chief, leaving Alna with a modern fire station and operating equipment that is at least the equal of any department in Lincoln County. He credited department volunteers for helping him identify and pursue grants over the years to underwrite the department’s operating costs.
“We have gotten a lot of grants because of a lot great people around me,” Trask said. “Without all those people, we wouldn’t be where we are today. That job can’t be done alone. I needed everybody around me. You make the chief look good when the people behind him are good.”
Going forward Trask plans to continue operating his contracting business, Trask Construction, and serve as Alna road commissioner. Task was first elected to the office in 2024 and is unopposed in his bid for the third consecutive one-year term this year.
Trask also said he has no plans to leave the Alna Fire Department, he will just continue in a new role.
“I am going to be a fireman,” he said. “For me, I didn’t want to quit. When I had my conversation with Mike, he asked what I going to do and I said ‘I am going to be your pump operator.’”
