LIMESTONE – The Loring Fire Department laid off five firefighters this week and changed its operation from 24 hours a day, seven days a week to 12 hours and five days.

The move, according to the Loring Development Authority President Brian Hamel, will save the LDA about $250,000 a year. The cuts were effective Oct. 1.

Hamel said Friday the LDA made a decision to change the method that provides emergency services to its clients at the Loring Commerce Centre.

“The Fire Department lost five persons,” he said. “We are working with the town of Limestone to have their volunteer fire department in a more active role.

“Loring will have a full-time fire department from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday,” Hamel said. “During the off hours, the Limestone Fire Department will provide protection with their volunteers.”

Before the layoffs, the Loring Fire Department had 10 full-time employees. The entire crew works out of one fire station on the LCC. The firefighters also are trained as emergency medical technicians and use an ambulance from the Caribou Fire and Rescue Service for those emergencies.

Along with the agreement with Limestone, the department has a mutual aid agreement with the Caribou Fire Department, Hamel said.

When the Limestone Fire Department is called to an emergency, the off-duty Loring firefighters will be called in to help with the effort.

“Consolidation of services is the wave of the future, including municipal services,” Hamel said. “We feel we can adequately protect life and property with the schedule we have created.”

He said most people and most enterprises on the former air base operate during the day.

The five firefighters who lost their jobs received severance pay, Hamel said. That amounted to one week’s pay for every two years of service. Three of the laid-off firefighters had been with the department since 1999, and two of them had one year of service.

The $250,000 estimated savings was for salaries and fringe benefits, Hamel said. Most costs associated with firefighting are labor-driven, he said.

The telephone numbers for emergency services have not changed. When there is no personnel at the Loring Fire Station, the calls automatically will be forwarded to a dispatch system in Caribou.

Hamel explained that a combination of budgetary issues and taking a “real look” at the delivery of services came about in making the decision.

“We may, as time goes on, go beyond that,” he said of the consolidation of services. “This may be the first step in regionalization of services in the central Aroostook County region.”