ORLAND – Volunteer firefighters have elected a career firefighter to head the department.

John Gray of Orland was elected earlier this month to a one-year term as fire chief. Gray, 38, fills the vacancy left when Chief Chris Farley left last June to become chief at the Mount Desert Fire Department. Assistant Chief Richard Whitney has served as interim chief since then.

Gray was attracted to firefighting early in life and, as a youngster, joined the Orland Junior Fire Department. He recalls the joke about the young members’ hats that had “OJFD,” which some claimed stood for “orange juice for dinner.”

“The Orland Fire Department has always been very active in the recruiting of young people,” he said Thursday.

There always were a number of different activities for the budding firefighters to participate in, including parades and musters.

“It was always fun to see the red firetrucks come through town,” he said, noting that “firetrucks are supposed to be red.”

Gray has remained a member of the volunteer department in his hometown, but in 1990, he was hired by the Bangor Fire Department. Since then, he has run through the gamut of jobs there, starting as an emergency medical technician. He has driven firetrucks and now operates the ladder with the B crew at the department.

He holds an associate degree in fire science technology from Eastern Maine Technical College and has been trained in rescue methods, including confined space rescues and dive rescues. He also serves as a captain of the Penobscot County Dive Team.

Gray said his first priority for the department would be to continue recruitment efforts and training for new and current firefighters. Although recent recruitment has attracted some new members to the department, he said, the department also has lost some firefighters during that time.

The department now has a roster of about 40 active members.

He particularly wants to focus on training firefighters for interior attacks, he said.

“We have a limited number of people who can do it,” Gray said. “We have 20 who are certified. It takes so much to get qualified to do it.”

Firefighters need about 100 hours of training in aspects of fighting interior fires. Training requirements are the same for volunteer departments as they are for paid, professional departments, he said.

“As far as they’re concerned, a firefighter is a firefighter,” he said. “We all have to meet NFPA [National Fire Protection Agency] standards. It’s quite a commitment.”

Recent training sessions have focused on such topics as use of air packs inside burning buildings, truck driving and maintenance, hose handling, first aid and extrication. This month’s sessions will deal with cold-water rescue.

“We train for ice rescues every year,” Gray said. “Ice conditions can be scary. Each year we generally have an incident that we have to respond to.”

Ice conditions can vary even in very cold weather, and he warned people to just “be careful on ice.”

In addition to training, the department needs people to perform tasks ranging from driving trucks and traffic control to dispatching and record keeping.

“The government has mandated all kinds of things we have to keep track of,” he said.

The department, for example, must keep records on its federally required equipment tests for all the equipment it uses.

Members of the department train every Monday and sometimes on weekends. They hold a monthly meeting on the first Wednesday of every month as well. Anyone interested in joining the department can attend that monthly meeting or contact the department at 469-3079.