The Alna First Responders, a fire department arm that meets with patients while an ambulance is on the way from Wiscasset, will shut down at the end of February, Fire Chief Mike Trask said Jan. 29.

The fire department wanted to keep the program going after First Responders Director Marcie Lovejoy wraps up her service; but extensive recruiting efforts over the past year have not met that goal, Trask said.

The program has three members besides Lovejoy, but two live in Wiscasset and may not get to a scene any sooner than Wiscasset Ambulance Service can, Trask said in an interview Friday. Alna residents can arrive five to 10 minutes ahead of the ambulance, he said.

One local member is not enough to be able to continue offering the service, he said.

The only way to avoid Feb. 28 being the last day for the service would be if a trained emergency medical technician stepped up to join the program; otherwise, due to the extensive training involved for new members and requirements that they pass the classes and state tests, the soonest the program could restart after the shutdown would probably be in six months, he said.

That would also take finding the people willing to train for and then serve with the program.

“We have beat the bushes,” fire department secretary Beth Whitney told selectmen Jan. 29. “It’s not a sudden pulling of the plug,” she said about the program’s impending shutdown.

Whitney said she was one of the fire department’s board members who voted in the minority to hold off on the shutdown. Selectmen also discussed the idea.

“It is a valuable service that I hate to see us lose,” First Selectman David Abbott said. “But I don’t see as there’s any alternative.”

In mid-January, the department put out a sign in the fire station parking lot along Route 218, seeking firefighters and the emergency medical technicians needed for First Responders.

In 2014, Trask wrote residents a letter seeking new recruits. There have been some prospective new First Responders, but after Trask succeeded in lining up training in nearby Newcastle, Alna had no takers.

“I have done everything remotely possible ... I just don’t know what else there is to do,” he told selectmen Thursday night. He and the board said Wiscasset will be contacted to discuss the matter and any changes that could result from it.

As of March 1, when the Alna fire department stops having First Responders, the only change for residents will be that, when someone calls Lincoln County Communications for an ambulance, the First Responders will no longer be dispatched, fire department officials said.

Reached after the meeting, Wiscasset Ambulance Service Director Roland Abbott said the agency will still serve Alna if Alna has no First Responders. The two towns have a contract.

Any Alna residents interested in becoming a First Responder may contact Trask at 207-441-0332. He would also like to hear from anyone interested in becoming a firefighter. While the department is not at risk of shutting down in the near future, it could happen at some point, he said.

About one-fourth of the department’s approximately 20 members are well into their sixties. 

“They still put time in, but they’re not as active as they were,” he said. He estimated members’ average age as being in the 50s.

The department has lost six to eight members to moves or other personal reasons, Trask said.

“Some people think they’re too busy. It’s a lot of work, but it has a lot of rewards: the help you’re giving the community, the people you meet (and) the friendships you make.”

Having a volunteer department also saves on taxes compared to hiring out for services, he said.

Trask told selectmen the department will get the board a letter with wording the state requires for the First Responders’ shutdown. A restart would then require re-licensing, he said.