OWLS HEAD – The large sign outside the Owls Head Fire Department, March 6, was intended to draw more members. In larger print: “This fire department is closed. Your insurance rates are going way up.” The smaller print: “It’s going to happen without your help....” So some townspeople panicked, having seen only the large print, that the Town Selectmen whisked the sign away within hours.

Now, a new sign is drawing the eye of passers-by as the department continues recruitment efforts to offset a shortage of firefighting and auxiliary manpower that Assistant Fire Chief John Gamage described as critical within the aging department.

Five years ago an intense recruitment push enticed 13 new members to graduate from the required State Basic Life Support Interior Firefighter program. Several have since returned to college, relocated, or simply dropped out, Gamage said. A few cited a lack of affordable housing as a reason to turn away.

Word of mouth drew one new volunteer to the station in March as members debated recruitment strategies. Limited response to traditional recruitment of the younger generations continues to plague the situation. As a result, crew members are meeting the technology generation on their terms, and with new, creative methods. Soon, perhaps, videos of Owls Head firefighters will appear on personal devices as a way to incentivize new members to join and to combat the dwindling volunteer corps.

Trepidations mount at the idea of house fires, incidents at the Knox County Regional Airport, or motor vehicle accidents occurring when the mutual aid municipalities, and Owls Head residents, cannot respond.

The fire at Fisher Engineering in Rockland, Jan. 29, tapped all available mutual aid at that time, according to Capt. Skip Hallett, during a winter recruitment meeting. Had an incident occurred closer to home during that time, the odds of anyone responding were minimal at best, he said.

“All volunteer departments are looking for new members,” said OHFD firefighter Eliot Scott. “As chairman of the Maine State Firefighters Federation recruitment committee I am working hard to see this accomplished in our state.”

The goal is to get the young people involved, not just for their energy, but to keep the department moving forward into the future.

“This is what we’ve got,” Hallett said as he pointed to his teenage son (recently named Owls Head Junior Firefighter of the Year), and another teen, before two more teens arrived.

The department also seeks adults who work from home. These days, many people commute to work in neighboring towns — Rockland, Camden, Bath, Augusta — and they cannot easily rush to the fire station in the event of a call.

And, it is not just Owls Head facing this shortage. At most fire scenes involving volunteer departments, the conversation is the same. Crews that can be counted on two hands. Cushing has lobstermen willing to help, yet who can’t attend when out on the ocean.

Other volunteers respond for three or four departments because they know the manpower is crucial.

Some come from the fields, driving tractors with upmost speeds of 12 miles per hour. Still others not strong enough for the hard labor operate the rigs, manage the pump controls, or direct traffic.

In 2015, state legislators passed the Length of Service Award Program Cap as a way to financially reward volunteers who stay with their departments for a certain number of years.

However, ”Governor LePage had previously refused to appoint members to the Maine Length of Service Award Program Board of Trustees despite the passage of the LOSAP program in 2015,” said Lindsay Crete,communications director for the Maine State House Majority Office, in an email.

In March, 2017, Rep. Erin Herbig introduced LD 1243, "An Act Regarding the Maine Length of Service Award Program Board of Trustees," according to Crete. This bill requires the chairman of the Maine Fire Protection Services Commission to appoint initial members to the board of trustees if those appointments have not been made within 30 days of the effective date of that legislation.

“After this legislation was introduced, Governor LePage began making appointments to the board voluntarily,” Crete said. “Rep. Herbig thus requested the legislation be tabled where it died upon our adjournment.”

On April 4, the Maine House of Representatives enacted LD 1845 into law. "An Act to Provide Incentives to Attract Trained Firefighters to Maine and To Retain Trained Firefighters by Expanding the Provision of Live Fire Service Training,” requires the Maine Fire Protection Services Commission, housed within the Maine Community College System, to establish a grant program to provide funding for regional training facility improvements.

Yet, without volunteers to send, the new law has little impact on the Owls Head Fire Department. So the recruitment efforts continue, in Owls Head, and on most municipalities along the Midcoast.