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.