Yarmouth’s Tower 84 and Cumberland’s Engine 82 respond to a small fire in Yarmouth on Jan. 7. Through a mutual aid agreement, fire departments assist each other across municipalities. Contributed / Yarmouth Fire Rescue

Fire departments in towns of Yarmouth, North Yarmouth, Falmouth and Cumberland are getting significantly fewer volunteer firefighters than in previous decades, following a decline in volunteers across the nation and Maine, particularly in the last five years. In the case of larger emergencies, this decrease can result in significant gaps in the response teams.

“Our volunteer numbers are extremely or dangerously low, and we’re always looking for people that are interested in becoming volunteer firefighters,” said Yarmouth Fire Chief Mike Robitaille.

Yarmouth Fire Rescue is a “combination department,” meaning it has both staffed and volunteer emergency responders. With four staff members, the rest of the emergency crew consists of whichever volunteers are available.

“Having the volunteers is great. Having the volunteers respond is another thing,” said Robitaille.

In 1980, Yarmouth Fire Rescue had 70 volunteers. Now it has 15, with only three or four responding to a call, said Robitaille. According to the The National Fire Protection Association, volunteer firefighters in the United States have decreased by 25% since 1984, while the U.S. population has grown by 40% since then. In 2020 alone, volunteer firefighters decreased by 6% to the lowest number ever recorded.

Larger events such as house fires require teams of at least 17 people for all of the assigned tasks, said Robitaille. To address lower numbers of respondents to larger fires, departments are collaborating across towns to respond more effectively.

At two large fires in Yarmouth over the past two months, Yarmouth Fire Rescue called on help from other departments through mutual aid agreements. For the Jan. 29 house fire on Rogers Road, Cumberland’s heavy rescue and tower ladder, Freeport’s fire engine and North Yarmouth’s ambulance came to help fight the blaze, with Falmouth helping cover the Yarmouth fire station.

“Both of these incidents were significant and staffing was low,” said Robitaille.

Inter-town mutual aid has been used widely, with fire and rescue teams calling on units in other towns to fill in their gaps and cover their stations. However, one town’s fire department going to help another can cause extended shuffling and potential gaps in coverage.

“If Cumberland has two people working on shift now, and I call them here now, they have nobody in their town,” said Falmouth Fire Chief Howard Rice.

“It’s a domino effect, but we’re trying to figure out how to make that work,” he said.

While Yarmouth and Cumberland fire departments responded to a fire on Madeleine Point Road on March 1, North Yarmouth Fire Rescue covered Yarmouth’s North Station in case of calls there. Mutual aid also increases the number of calls that a department responds to in a day as it assists other towns.

In response to decreasing volunteers, Falmouth has hired more career firefighters to fill out the roster, following a national shift toward career firefighters. Over the last five years, the town hired 37 full-time firefighters. With nine on staff around the clock, the rest of the response team still must use volunteers or mutual aid.

The Falmouth Fire-EMS Department has about 20 volunteer firefighters and about half are active, said Rice. He said that when he first joined the department 17 years ago, 100 people were on the roster and 50 were regularly responding. In 2011, it would be typical for 40 volunteers to show up to combat a house fire, said Rice.

“For a lot of calls we get, we’d be lucky to get two or three volunteers come out, depending on what the situation is. We still value them. They still do a great job for us,” he said.

Rice said there are a variety of reasons for decreasing volunteer numbers. While the pool was declining long before the COVID-19 pandemic, that era made it harder for some volunteers to participate. Other volunteers got too old for the intense physical work, and younger volunteers have not joined in the same numbers. Some volunteers moved out of Falmouth, while others instead took paid firefighting jobs in surrounding towns and Portland.

While volunteer numbers decrease, the number of calls that the station takes has increased in recent years. In 2011, it received 1,637 calls for assistance. By 2024, this increased to 2,562 calls.

“Now we’re busier than we ever were, so it’s a lot more to ask for from volunteers,” said Rice, who thinks an aging community could be a factor in this rise in calls.

“I think (with) volunteers, just people in general, there’s a lot going on and it’s just harder to try to find time to do extra things,” he said.

All of the fire departments are still actively recruiting volunteers. They are trying to spread the word every chance they get, said Robitaille.

“We certainly would love for them to either call the station, stop by the station. We meet every Wednesday night for training from 6:30 until 9, so if somebody wanted to stop in at that time they could,” said Robitaille.

The Cumberland Fire Department and North Yarmouth Fire Department are hosting a recruitment night on Tuesday, March 25, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. They welcome anyone older than a high school graduate to meet volunteers, take a tour of the station and ask any questions about what it means to join the department.