Insurance woes pare Penobscot County Dive Team

BANGOR – The Penobscot County Dive Team has been ordered officially to stand down, but that didn’t stop its members from showing up in Hampden on Monday for the report of a possible snowmobile operator in the water.

A hole in the Souadabscook Stream was found, but no snowmobile or rider ended up in the stream. The rider was presumed to have ridden away.

Wearing a cold-water rescue suit and prodding the stream bottom with a pole for any signs of what happened was Tim Campbell, a Bangor firefighter-paramedic who heads up the volunteer county dive team, composed mostly of local firefighters.

Concerns over liability and workers’ compensation insurance have put a significant number of team members on ice. Only members covered by the insurance carrier of their local fire department can respond to emergency situations. Of the 21 dive team members, about five who are not firefighters have been asked not to respond to emergencies or attend training exercises.

About 90 firefighters and others have formed the Penobscot Emergency Response Team, which specializes in difficult rescues, from rough terrain and cliffs to confined spaces.

In late October, the Penobscot County commissioners put much of the emergency team on stand-down status, pending insurance coverage for the organization that includes specialists trained in water rescues, technical rescues, confined spaces and a special fire unit. Specialists who deal with hazardous materials – who also are part of the team – are covered by state insurance.

Although the commissioners have funded the emergency team, the high cost of insurance prompted the three-member panel to halt its operations temporarily under the county jurisdiction.

Tom Davis, chairman of the county commissioners, said insurance costs to cover the entire emergency team would be expensive, a cost he doesn’t think should be borne by the county. No cost estimates for insurance were available through the county, local fire chiefs or the Maine Municipal Association, which covers the county and many of the communities in Penobscot County.

The commissioners have sought unsuccessfully to find a resolution, said Davis, who believes that ultimately the solution is in a legislative bill that would cover all emergency team members throughout the state.

“All it will take is a stroke of a pen in Augusta to cure this problem,” Davis said Tuesday afternoon.

Bangor Fire Department Chief Jeffrey Cammack said that local fire chiefs are pressing the Legislature to pass a bill that would cover all aspects of the emergency team with the insurance already provided to the hazmat team.

But that will take time. The bill initially was submitted in December and its final language crafted Monday. Even on the fast track, it could be months before the bill is up for a vote.

The stand down has frustrated people such as Orono Fire Chief Lorin LeCleire, who has worked hard to develop what he said is the only emergency response team of its kind in the state. While municipalities in other counties deal with rescues in water and difficult terrain piecemeal, Penobscot County has developed a cooperative effort aimed at expediency as well as efficiency.

LeCleire and Cammack said that despite the stand-down order they don’t think team members would turn down an opportunity to help someone in need.

“I don’t think we’re going to slow them down,” Cammack said.

While it awaits a resolution in Augusta, the county could develop a mutual aid agreement, said Joan Conner, director of risk management for the Maine Municipal Association. She said the county was sent a letter on Dec. 2 from the association indicating they needed to address the mutual aid agreement, although the association has yet to hear from the county. Under a mutual aid agreement, municipalities would be responsible for their own employees responding to emergencies in any of the towns or cities in the pact. It’s not clear how nonemployees would be covered.

But LeCleire has said that is only a partial solution and, like Davis, believes the answer lies in changing state law to include all emergency team members. LeCleire said that while there never has been a diving accident in the last 12 years, insurance premiums could go up in his town should a team member be injured during an emergency in another municipality.