ALNA, Maine — After 30 years in operation, Alna First Responders formally will cease operations March 1.
Fire Chief Mike Trask informed the town’s selectmen Jan. 29 of the group’s plan to disband. Trask said the fire department’s board of directors made the decision at its meeting Jan. 28, partly because of Marcie Lovejoy’s decision to retire at the end of February. Lovejoy is the director of Alna First Responders and the 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 bring individuals to the hospital.
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 heyday, Alna First Responders had six to eight volunteers responding to medical calls. In recent history, those numbers have dwindled 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 found. The same conversation took place during the fire department’s board of directors meeting, according to Beth Whitney, a member of the board of directors.
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.