Cape Elizabeth’s fire chief wants to add scheduled night duty staffing to the town’s emergency medical services division in response to a shrinking volunteer squad and growing response times.

Thirteen people have resigned from the rescue company in the past three months for reasons ranging from scheduling conflicts to career changes, said Fire Chief Peter Gleeson. As a result, the division is relying heavily on about five on-call paramedics or emergency medical technicians who regularly respond to ambulance calls between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The concentrated on-call demand is taking a toll on rescue company members, especially those who have to work the next day, and pushing the average night emergency response time from 5 minutes to 12 minutes, Gleeson said. With fewer people to call on, night response times lately can run as long as 20 minutes, he said.

“We haven’t missed a call yet,” Gleeson said Wednesday. “We’re trying to provide the best emergency medical service in the most cost-effective manner. We’re hoping to maintain paid on-call staffing as long as possible because full-time staffing is a more expensive proposition.”

Gleeson said many fire and rescue squads are struggling to find and keep volunteer or on-call staff members. Many of the responders in Cape Elizabeth are retirees or people without other jobs.

Gleeson has asked the Town Council to allow him to schedule two people to be at the Town Center Station at night, when coverage is usually provided by the on-call staff.

A paramedic would be paid a per-diem rate of $19 to $23 per hour. An EMT would be paid a $50 stipend to be on call and an hourly rate when called on an emergency.

The council is scheduled to consider Gleeson’s proposal when it meets Nov. 4.

The staffing change would cost nearly $49,000 and could be covered by making adjustments in the department’s $264,000 payroll budget for 2015-16, Gleeson said.

However, he needs an additional $25,000 to renovate and furnish two rooms in the station to serve as sleeping quarters for the added staff, including a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

The longer response times come as the Cape Elizabeth Fire & Rescue Department sees an increase in emergency medical calls, Gleeson said.

While only 10 percent of medical calls occur at night, Gleeson said, medical calls now account for three-quarters of the 1,000 to 1,100 fire and rescue calls answered by the department each year.

Moreover, medical calls are lasting longer than they did in the past – often as long as two hours – because paramedics have better equipment and are trained to do more than just take people to the hospital, Gleeson said.

Most members of Cape Elizabeth’s on-call staff live in town or in neighboring South Portland, but it can take a while to get to the station, especially in foul weather, Gleeson said.

Fortunately, every Cape Elizabeth police officer is an EMT, he said, and they usually arrive at night medical calls within 3 or 4 minutes – often long before the ambulance.

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UPDATE: This story was updated at 4 p.m. Oct. 29, 2015, to provide additional information about the type of calls answered by the department each year.

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