By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    Fire and Rescue Chief Philip McGouldrick recently
praised Cape Elizabeth’s all volunteer department and its ability to
offer quality service at a fraction of the cost of other Maine
communities. Town Manager Michael McGovern’s benchmark study, released
earlier this month, confirmed McGouldrick’s claims via a comparison of
fire department expenditures within nine other municipalities. Last
year, the Cape Elizabeth fire department spent $239,367, coming in last
after Cumberland with $260,687 in expenditures. South Portland, the
largest community in the study, spent the most at $3.9 million.

    “This department is very cost-effective because we
work with volunteers,” he said. “The back side of that could be– and
its not– you can provide a cheaper service, but not the kind of
service. These guys do a lot.” He said an independent group, Insurance
Services Office, which rates fire departments across the country on a
scale of one to ten, with one being the best score, ranked Cape
Elizabeth as a class three department. McGouldrick said the insurance
premium on properties is based on the fire department ratings and a
volunteer department achieving such a rating is "unheard of." He said
there are only three class two departments in the state and both are
professional forces. There are no class one departments in the
state. 

    McGouldrick said Cape Elizabeth has been fortunate
in its ability to attract volunteers, as surrounding communities have
had to create full-time positions. The department is facing another
obstacle, however, in that McGouldrick is trying to come up with
incentives to keep senior fire fighters in the department.

    “I don’t want to lose those kinds of people,” he
said. “They’re a valuable resource to us…they know the community, they
know the people in the community, they know the infrastructure of the
community, where the hydrant system is, (and) what the building
structure is.”  McGouldrick said he has been discussing a
retirement system with McGovern. The town council has indicated they
will explore such a system in the current budget cycle. McGouldrick
said he and McGovern also talked about offering health insurance to
volunteers who may be paying high premiums with their current provider.
McGouldrick also said the department tries to keep its hourly rate
competitive with that of other communities.

    Although McGouldrick said retaining volunteers
hasn’t been a major issue so far, he said it is important for the
department to keep up recruitment efforts. When asked how the town is
able to attract volunteers when others can’t, McGouldrick said it has
to do with the “family-oriented” nature of the department.

    “We’ve got a nucleus of people that are very gung-ho
and they keep other people’s interest up and new people coming in,” he
said. McGouldrick said one of the volunteers, Dave Jones, semi-retired
last year and initially joined the department to be a truck driver.
When the Firefighter One class came up, however, Jones decided he would
take part in the training, which included dragging hoses, climbing
ladders and entering burning buildings. McGouldrick said Jones went
through the class with high school students. 

    The high school feeder program is another means by
which Cape Elizabeth has been able to stay cost effective. Although he
said many departments have similar programs, it is a “pretty viable
program” for an entity dependent on volunteers.

    “The high school students have provided us with a
work force to do the day-to-day menial jobs that it’s hard to get a
fire fighter or a rescue person around here that’s got 20, 25 years to
come in and do those kind of jobs. They’ll help out a little bit, but
to do the bulk of it, we rely heavily on our students,” McGouldrick
said.  For example, the Student Fire/Rescue Squad might test hoses
or shovel hydrants.

     Evidence of the students’ contributions could
be found next to the department’s forestry truck, which they received
last year from a Federal Fire Act Grant of $125,000. The new truck will
respond to accident calls and McGouldrick said it is equipped with a
10,000-watt generator, cutters, a winch, extrication tools, and a light
to illuminate the entire accident scene. McGouldrick said the
department applied for the grant as part of a wildland interface
initiative, as more and more people are building houses in the woods
and there are 30 houses within the forested, privately owned Sprague
property.

     McGouldrick said due to the grant, the
department had an extra truck in its station. Two of the students aided
senior fire fighters in taking an old truck apart and installing a new
body, which kept the truck in service. Where it normally would have
been considered junk, McGouldrick said the fire fighters can use the
truck to transport hose and barricades. The new poly truck body will
also allow the department to pull the boat for the town’s Water
Extrication Team, whereas the body from the old truck rusted out.

    Another facet of the department that may soon need
replacing is the Cape Cottage fire station located off of Shore Road.
McGouldrick said the station is in need of repairs and the town has
looked at the possibility of combining Cape Elizabeth with South
Portland’s Willard station. He said the stations started responding to
each other’s calls two years ago. The fire on 33 Bayview Street in
South Portland that stranded an elderly couple on a porch roof earlier
this month, was a call that Cape Elizabeth also responded to.
McGouldrick said Cape Elizabeth supplied South Portland with a ladder
truck and an air bottle trailer.

    If the consolidation did go forward, McGouldrick
said there is a risk that the Cape Cottage company could lose its
identity. McGouldrick said fifty percent of the volunteers live in
South Portland, but they chose to join a Cape Elizabeth company.

    “Out here, they are the force…they’re the people
that respond,” he said. When the department responds to calls in South
Portland, McGouldrick said the volunteers are treated like backup for
the full-time fire fighters. He said a merger could potentially weaken
the company.

    McGouldrick also had strong feelings about another
collaborative effort between the two municipalities that, in his
opinion, went wrong. He said South Portland’s decision to discontinue
Edgewood Road “has big implications not just for the neighborhood, but
for the community.”

    “Dead end streets are a big no-no,” he said. “It
will affect the safety of their community and even affect their
insurance rating.” He said insurance rates are based on the most direct
route between a fire station and a home.

    He also said in emergency situations, minutes matter
and public safety officials will now have to find alternate routes. He
recalled an incident during the construction of the Blueberry Ridge
subdivision, in which a machine rolled over on a worker. He said public
safety officials from both municipalities responded and they took the
patient out in a different direction than they had come in. He said it
is also useful for his volunteers, who are often coming in different
trucks and from different directions.

    McGouldrick said municipal officials need to make
more of an effort to listen to the advice of public safety
representatives.