Claire Law

Portland Press Herald, Maine

(MCT)

Aug. 22—As Biddeford’s population grows, the city is considering building a new fire station to reduce response times for the community’s coastal areas.

Biddeford’s median response time for emergency medical calls citywide is about four minutes, which is lower than York County’s median of five minutes, according to Maine Emergency Medical Services.

But for calls coming from coastal areas, Biddeford Fire Chief Scott Gagne said it takes emergency responders from the Central Station downtown about 10 to 14 minutes to arrive to the scene.

“This city is exploding and growing, and we currently staff one station,” Gagne said. “We cover 32 square miles … we have a population that’s growing, we have multiple new buildings that are coming in, we have the mills that are being redeveloped … our coastal area is becoming more and more full-time residents, our college campus is growing.”

Aside from the Central Station located downtown, the city has one other station, which is in Biddeford Pool and is manned by two volunteers. Emergency apparatus from the Biddeford Pool substation usually arrive to the scene even later than the Central Station personnel — if at all, Gagne said, because there aren’t any full-time staff there.

A recommendation on whether to build a new station, including its location, cost and other details, will be made to the City Council by an ad hoc committee by Feb. 1. The City Council could then either make a decision based on the recommendations or send the question to voters as a referendum, said Mayor Alan Casavant.

Casavant said the 11 members of the committee — which was approved Tuesday by City Council — will consist of residents from across Biddeford, including former councilors, industry professionals and others.

Cost estimates haven’t been determined, Casavant said.

“Biddeford has historically been very fiscally conservative … I think today, things have changed a bit,” he said. “People are more astute to understanding how critical it is to have an ambulance get from point A to point B in an appropriate amount of time … The value of life of someone who lives at the Pool is the same as the value of life of someone who lives in the inner core.”

Gagne said for both fire suppression and emergency medical care, time is the biggest thing on their side.

“It all comes down to time,” Gagne said. “After the five-minute mark, we’re extremely concerned with quality of life … and we’re also concerned with flashover and integrity of buildings and things like that.”

A new station, however, still wouldn’t solve the Fire Department’s staffing issues, which started pre-pandemic and, Gagne said, are partly because of fewer volunteers.

“When I started 25 plus years ago, we … were budgeted for 40 call force members and we were full,” Gagne said. “I’m now budgeted for 25 and I maintain 16.”

Gagne said over the past 15 months, they’ve hired about 19 new staff members, and they still have five openings.

And their call volume has gone up. In 2021, the Biddeford Fire Department responded to a total of 5,847 fire and EMS calls, a number that has steadily been increasing since 2010, when they responded to 4,127 total calls, according to city documents.

Casavant said if the new station gets built, they’ll need to find creative ways to staff it.

“The need’s there,” Casava

Pierce—Carlock (IL) Fire Protection District tanker. Freightliner M106 cab and chassis; Cummins L9 360-hp engine; Waterous CXPA 1,000-gpm PTO pump; UPF Poly 3,000-gallon water tank; three Newton 10-inch stainless-steel dump valves with swiveling chutes; Zico electric portable tank rack; front bumper discharge. Dealer: Larry Graves, MacQueen Emergency, Aurora, IL.

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Brian Hubert

Daily Freeman, Kingston, N.Y.

(MCT)

Aug. 20—KINGSTON, N.Y. — Visitors to the Volunteer Firemen’s Hall and Museum of Kingston’s 18th annual Antique Fire Engine Muster on Saturday looked on in awe at more than a dozen vintage fire engines parked on Fair Street.

Some came, many with children in tow, to check out the classic trucks. Others just happened to come upon the event, with some even inquiring about what was going on as they walked past the vintage rigs.

Kyle Mather was walking to the Kingston Farmer’s Market with his daughter June when they saw the lineup of firetrucks and decided to walk through. “She likes fire engines,” Mather said.

Mark Berthiaume, the museum’s vice president, said he expected anywhere up to 3,000 people to attend by the time the event was slated to wrap up at 4 p.m.

Among those who brought vintage firetrucks was Terry Davis Jr. He brought three of the trucks on display. They included a 1984 Mack CF 600 with a 100-foot ladder that was used to unfurl a large American flag over the street.

Davis, a volunteer firefighter, comes from a family of firefighters, including his father and stepfather. This helped to foster a love of vintage firetrucks. His collection includes an older model 1971 CF 600 that originally served a department in Collingdale, Pa., and a 1969 Seagrave.

Davis’ stepfather, Terry Davis, was also on hand. He said he recalled when the museum of Fair Street served as a Kingston Fire Department fire station until the Frog Alley station was built in the 1970s.

Dan Halpert, a firefighter in Ticonderoga, made the longest trip with a 1969 1250 CF built by the now-defunct manufacturer Oren and that was first owned by the Carmel Fire Department in Putnam County. The vehicle later served multiple less busy departments in the Adirondacks until the pump broke, making it destined for the scrap heap.

“I phoned the fire chief and he told me if I could come up with the scrap value it was mine,” he said.

Halpert had it painted in a high-visibility green that gained some popularity with some departments for a time in the 1970s but later fell out of favor as they returned to the traditional red.

Jeff Tremberger, of Pine Bush, brought a 1957 Ward LaFrance pumper. He said it holds a very special place in his heart as he remembers riding on it when it served the Pine Bush Fire Department in Orange County.

“It never broke down, it’s still going,” he said.

He added that it’s a far cry from today’s trucks, which are heavily computerized,

Just as he spoke, a 1985 American LaFrance hook and ladder truck arrived. Erich Lachmann of the Fairchester Hose Haulers of the Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America sat in the tiller’s position helping to steer at the back while Luke Paynter, a former professional firefighter at the Middletown Fire Department, drove it up from Middletown.

Lachmann said the vehicle served the Hastings-on-Hudson Fire Department’s Ladder 22 in Westchester County for about 20 years before it was sold to the city of Norwalk, Conn. He said his role as the tiller is to help the truck make tight corners and go into allies. “It can go pretty much anywhere the front can go,” he said.

After the truck was retired by Norwalk, it was donated to the club. “It was in very astounding shape, so they didn’t want it to get destroyed,” Paynter said.

These days, the Fairchester Hose Haulers just use the trucks for

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