LINCOLN – Seeking to diversify its work and perhaps to increase its membership, the Fire Department is forming its own rescue team, Fire Chief Phil Dawson said Tuesday.

The rescue team would handle high-angle rescues, such as those involving mountains, ledges, cliffs or pits, and would be open to members of the Lincoln Search and Rescue Team, an area volunteer group that often assists state police and regional efforts at locating or rescuing lost people.

“We’re just beginning to organize it,” Dawson said Tuesday.

Dawson is also looking for workers at large-scale industrial sites, such as Lincoln Paper & Tissue LLC, and volunteer firefighters from nearby towns such as Howland, where he remains a volunteer fire chief.

Other sorts of work the team could perform would be water rescues from iced water or rescuing people from vehicles at accidents, Dawson said.

Town Manager Glenn Aho said Dawson was doing good work in trying to broaden firefighters’ skill sets. This makes the fire service more beneficial and economical to the community, he said.

Dawson, 50, of Howland was hired in June after 27 years as a military firefighter and also had some experience in ambulance service work and as a state trooper.

The department has 45 part-time, or call, firefighters plus seven full-time engineers.

Anyone interested in joining the rescue team is asked to call 794-8161.