PARIS — Selectmen have tentatively scheduled a public meeting April 13 to talk about regionalizing fire services to address the growing shortage of firefighters in Oxford Hills.

It’s set for 6:30 p.m. at the Paris Fire Station, 137 Western Ave., with officials from Norway and Oxford. The public is invited to attend.

At the selectmen meeting March 14, Board of Selectmen Chairman Mike Risica said he spoke with Norway and Oxford selectmen individually about the need for more firefighters in the area.

“We want to set up a workshop to see if we can brainstorm some ideas … to solve this problem before it gets really bad,” he said. The meeting should include selectmen, fire chiefs and deputy chiefs, he said.

Selectman Sam Elliot suggested firefighters should attend as well.

Paris Fire Chief Brad Frost helped draft a regionalization plan with Norway and Oxford officials some years back and Risica said he still has a copy of the document.

“There’s a lot of good ideas, but it just died,” Risica said.

Resident Scott Buffington asked if the plan could be shared with the public and selectmen agreed.

Deputy Fire Chief Jon Longley spoke about the firefighter shortage in Oxford Hills and beyond, noting that local departments are pulling from the same pool of firefighters and volunteers.

“The common denominator is people,” he said. “The three or four people we do get are getting exhausted, time and time again. … I can tell you personally the last two structure fires, I fought a fire for six hours, went to work, came back and repeated (it).”

Longley said to get the needed manpower to fight fires, it is necessary to call out nine to 10 departments instead of the two to three that used to be called.

“It is embarrassing,” he said. “At some point, somebody is going to be hurt.”

Longley said he is also the fire instructor in the Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico.

“I do not have any short-term solutions for you folks,” he said. “Long-term is driving in our youth.”

Elliot asked if a program was being developed at the high school.

Interim Town Manager Sawin Millett said he contacted Oxford Hills/Buckfield Adult Education and Central Maine Community College and will contact representatives at Oxford Hill Technical School, which is part of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.

He said Longley could serve as an instructor if a program is created.

“I think John’s point is we need to target the younger generation,” Millett said.

Selectman Robert Wessels said the town has tried unsuccessfully to get more firefighters in its ranks, but it’s difficult to do so because the $12-an-hour job usually requires a second job to make ends meet.

“Regionalization, to me, the benefit is, you would be able to create some of those full-time or more permanent positions where (firefighters) can count on that income,” he said. “You now have something more alluring to people who are interested but unable to commit to a secondary job.”

Selectman Janet Jamison agreed with Wessels.

“Why would anyone work for a fire department and want to get paid $12 an hour when they can get paid that at Cumberland Farms and not get burned?” she asked.

Jamison suggested Paris, Norway and Oxford hire five full-time firefighters for a living wage and benefits.

Longley warned this would drive up the department’s cost and Frost previously said he’d prefer regionalization over a full-time department.

Jamison said the most important issue is to “figure out how we can cover this damn area 24/7 and make sure our houses don’t burn down.”

Longley told the board about an upcoming event in the Lakes Region that focuses on developing youth firefighting programs and getting younger people involved in the fire service.

Risica volunteered to attend with Longley and the two will bring back their findings to next month’s workshop.

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