Meeting with the Alna Board of Selectmen Jan. 29, Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask announced the Alna First Responders will formally cease operations as of March 1.
Trask said the fire department’s board of directors made the decision at their meeting Jan. 28, due in part to Marcie Lovejoy’s decision to retire at the end of February. Lovejoy is the director of Alna First Responders and its last remaining emergency medical technician.
“I have a lot of years invested in this and I’m sorry to see it go,” Lovejoy said. “I’m just too old to keep doing it. I’m physically and mentally spent.”
For the past two years, the fire department has tried to recruit new EMTs to join the first responders unit. Those efforts were unsuccessful, Trask said. “It was not an easy decision, but if you don’t have anyone you don’t have anyone,” Trask said.
Alna First Responders was established in 1985. The unit has never had an ambulance and has relied on Wiscasset Ambulance Service to transport individuals to the hospital. Alna First Responders, however, were present at the scene before the ambulance arrived.
After the first responders disband, Alna residents may end up waiting an additional five to 15 minutes for a response to their medical calls, which will be handled by Wiscasset Ambulance Service.
Alna First Responders were able to mitigate the need for an ambulance in a variety of situations, Lovejoy said. Individuals who called for an ambulance because they were scared, sometimes realized they could either drive themselves to the hospital, or they did not really need medical treatment, Lovejoy said.
According to Lovejoy, Alna First Responders receive approximately 30 to 35 calls a year.
In its hey-day, Alna First Responders had six to eight volunteers responding to medical calls. In recent history, those numbers have dwindled down to a single person – Lovejoy. Trask named the time commitment involved in serving as an EMT and the problem in scheduling local EMT certification trainings as the primary barriers to recruitment efforts.
While a volunteer unit, first responders receive $12 an hour for medical calls and $12 an hour for 30 hours of training, Trask said.
“I’ve done everything possible,” Trask said of recruiting new first responders. “I don’t know what else there is that I can do.”
Selectmen discussed the possibility of mothballing the first responders until new recruits were identified. The same conversation occurred at the fire department’s board of directors meeting, Beth Whitney, a member of the board of directors said.
However, the board of directors voted to close the first responder unit when Lovejoy’s EMT license expires at the end of February.
“Nothing will really change,” Whitney said. “If people call, the ambulance will still come.”
Individuals with questions about Alna First Responders can contact the Alna Fire Department at 586-5555.
