Woodbury McLean, a 36-year-old lifetime resident of Nobleboro, took over as the Nobleboro Fire Chief at the beginning of this year.
McLean was elected when Mike Martin stepped down at the end of last year after 12 years as chief. McLean is one of the most experienced firefighters in the department and thinks he’s ready to take on the new responsibilities.
“I’m surviving,” McLean said. “It’s a new change of command, and we’re going with it.”
So far, McLean, a self-employed carpenter, said he’s feeling optimistic.
“We’re still getting our seats broken in, but it’s going to be a good year,” McLean said.
McLean has been a firefighter at the Nobleboro Department for 18 years. He’s filled every role at the department at some point during that time, including running some of the smaller emergency scenes as an officer, and said that serving as chief is just a new challenge.
After saving lives and facing emergencies for almost two decades, he’s not worried about learning to handle the extra load of paper work.
“We’ve been in some smoky buildings were you’ve got your hand on the ankle of the guy in front of you, but you can’t see the white-soled bottom of his boot in front of your face. You just keep on top of what’s coming at you – that’s all you can do,” McLean said. “Being chief is a learning process, and I learn something every day. If you don’t learn something, it wasn’t worth getting out of bed.”
With the team he has alongside him, McLean is confident they’ll be able to handle whatever the job brings at them.
“It’s really not an individual effort. We’re a team, and we work as one,” McLean said.
Once the mountain of year-end reports have been taken care of, and his administration can settle in to bigger business, McLean has high hopes for his tenure as chief. He said he wants to turn Nobleboro “back into one of the top-notch departments.”
His immediate focus will be boosting membership.
At the end of last year, the department was 16 firefighters. They’ve already seen a few new recruits this year, and McLean hopes they’re just the first of many.
“There are going to be some new ideas for recruiting,” he said.
McLean couldn’t specify as to any particular new methods he’ll be employing, but said, “It’ll be interesting.”
Until those new recruitment drives kick in, McLean encourages everyone to come to the fire station on Monday nights at 7 p.m. for a tour of the station and to meet the members of the department.
McLean thinks one of his major challenges will be to teach the public what it really means to be a firefighter. There’s a lot more to it than hauling hose, he said.
“There’s wide variety of skills we need and a lot of small jobs that have to get done,” McLean said. “And you can’t top the rush of it and the enjoyment of helping people.”
That rush has been enough to keep McLean and some of his fellow firefighters coming back for decades, and he hopes to show more people what they can do to help out.