When it comes to fighting fires, every second counts.

The longer it takes to get firefighters on the road and to a blaze, the more damage is done and, in turn, the more death can occur.

Fire departments nationally are producing slower response times to fires, but here in Maine, response times are well above national averages, according to Gary Parent, Maine Fire Chief Association president.

“We fare very well in response times,” said Parent, who has been Sanford fire chief for the last nine years. “Many people don’t believe that Maine is ahead of many things. This proves them wrong.”

A fire in its beginning stages, if given fuel and air, can double in size every minute. With firefighters arriving quickly, the chances of saving lives, homes and businesses increase substantially, Brewer Fire Chief Rick Bronson said during a recent interview. Quick responses also mean lower insurance costs for residents.

“When you get there makes a difference,” Bronson said.The issue of fire department response times has gained national attention in recent weeks with a series of reports by The Boston Globe. The newspaper analyzed public records for 3.3 million building fires reported between 1986 and 2002 by 20,000 fire departments across the country and determined that response times are getting longer.

After the initial emergency call, firefighters should arrive within six minutes, according to standards set by the National Fire Protection Association.

In the United States, fire departments met the response time goal only 35 percent of the time in 2002, based on numbers submitted to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, or NFIRS, and tallied by the Globe for its article, which focused specifically on response times in Massachusetts. Not all departments report to NFIRS, as reporting is voluntary.

Maine departments during the same time period beat the six-minute limit more than 60 percent of the time – almost double the national figures, according to the NFIRS numbers collected by the Globe. A total of 190 Maine departments reported fires between 1986 and 2002.

Nationally, fire departments are struggling to keep up with residential growth, especially in expanding urban areas. There is growth here in Maine, but it’s nowhere near that of certain states such as Arizona, Massachusetts or New York, which are seeing an influx of new residents.

Rural departments, which supply fire coverage to the majority of the nation and in Maine, are struggling with smaller budgets, older equipment, increased educational requirements and fewer volunteers, which puts them at a severe disadvantage in comparison to career or full-time departments. More recent Maine figures demonstrate, however, that fire departments in the state are continuing to have quick responses.

No response time figures for 2004 are available. In 2003, firefighters responded to 419 reports of structure fires in Maine, with an average response time of 8 minutes, 9 seconds.

These figures are based on 112 out of nearly 400 Maine fire departments that voluntarily reported data to the State Fire Marshal’s Office for the Maine Fire Incident Reporting System.

For 2002, 102 fire agencies across the state reported 71 structure fires, with the average response time of 9 minutes, 56 seconds. Only 51 fire agencies reported data to the Maine FIRS in 2001, with 41 fires and an average response time of 5 minutes, 50 seconds.

Fire fatality figures for the state, however, don’t appear to correspond directly with response times, with 18 deaths in 2004; 23 in 2003; 15 in 2002; 18 in 2001; and 18 in 2000. In 2005 there already have been four fire-related deaths.

Full-time vs. volunteer

Full-time and fully staffed departments, including Bangor, Brewer and Portland, typically have quick response times to emergency fire calls.

It is Maine’s small, rural communities with volunteer fire departments that are at a big disadvantage, according to Assistant State Fire Marshal Joseph Thomas.

“There is no question about it that rural America, Maine included, is having a difficult time with response times,” he said in a recent interview. “The number one problem is the people involved in the volunteer departments are most generally people who work. In today’s society, a great number of people who participate in these departments don’t work in their towns anymore.”

There are six full-time fire departments in Maine, and the rest are volunteer or a combination. The full-time departments beat the six-minute standard more than 88 percent of the time, while volunteer departments beat it nearly 60 percent of the time.

Nationally, only 58 percent of career departments meet the standard, and a dismal 14.3 percent of volunteer departments hit the six-minute mark.

Smaller fire stations usually can’t afford to have someone staff their stations 24 hours a day seven days a week, which creates longer response times.

There are exceptions to the rule, however.

The small, 32-member volunteer fire department that covers Dover-Foxcroft prides itself with getting to fires quickly, Fire Chief Joseph Guyotte said.

Residents in these close-knit communities that merged decades ago have dedicated local firefighters who work in town and carry their gear with them, the 20-year veteran chief said.

“I have two people who work in town really close to the station,” said Guyotte, who also is the state director for the National Volunteer Fire Council. “Normally, I go directly to the scene and size it up. I have two other officers who normally go direct.”

Because of the proximity of Guyotte’s personnel, the Dover-Foxcroft department, which covers 78 square miles, typically has at least one person at fires within the six-minute standard, the chief said.

Portland’s full-time fire department, with 230 fire personnel spread over eight stations, is another department in Maine that typically arrives within six minutes, Deputy Chief Terry Walsh said.

“It’s because we’re a full-time department. That makes all the difference in the world because we have firefighters in the station at all times,” he said. “We’re able to get out the door in a minute, and the stations are stationed well across the city.”

The Portland department, which has an average response time of four minutes or less, serves about 30 square miles, including five small islands off the coast that are staffed by volunteer firefighters.

Full-time departments including Bangor, with its 87 firefighters, and Brewer, with 35 firefighters, send all available firefighters in the station to each building fire to which they are dispatched. The departments leave a backup crew at their stations or call in another backup crew either through on-call personnel or mutual aid with neighboring departments.

Bangor, which covers a city area of 34 square miles, beats the six-minute standard 90.3 percent of the time. Brewer, with 15 square miles, makes it to the fire scene before the six-minute mark 93.9 percent of the time.

Many smaller volunteer departments, including Hope Fire Department, with its 20 volunteer firefighters and one of the slowest response times in the state, have firefighters who do not work in town. That results in longer response times, Fire Chief Clarence Keller acknowledged recently.

“The majority of active responders during the day [come] from out of town,” he said. “… We’re averaging out around 10 minutes, which isn’t too bad for a rural department.”

A number of other Maine rural departments have about the same average response time, according to fire officials.

More than response time

Arriving at the scene in time isn’t enough if departments arrive without the necessary resources to make a difference, Chief Bronson said. “Making it there in six minutes is good advice, but to really fight a fire, a crew of at least 15 is required,” the Brewer chief said. “If you can’t produce that, your local fire department isn’t doing what it’s designed to do.”

Federal regulations require a minimum of two firefighters to back up an initial team of at least two firefighters before anyone enters a working structure fire, in what is referred to as the “two-in-and-two-out rule.”

“You need to have a reasonable response time, and you need to have the people to do the job,” Parent agreed.

Public education and stricter building codes in the United States have reduced the number of actual fires in recent years, but the workload for departments has increased because many of them took on the handling of emergency medical service work in the 1970s and 1980s.

Nowadays, fire departments respond to every call, from the routine to the bizarre, from chimney fires to suicide attempts to popcorn burning in the microwave. They respond to reports of strange odors, to rescue animals, to women in labor.

Hope’s fire department is a perfect example of how times have changed. The small department, located six miles from the coast, fought a blaze on Jan. 21. Before that date, the last fire was in January 2003.

“Last year we responded to 40 calls, and about 50 percent of those were vehicle accidents,” said Keller, the 18-year veteran chief.

For this reason, many departments now require firefighters to have first responder or EMS education in order to be hired.

In 2002, Maine fire departments responded to 52,000 calls, with 45 percent of them being EMS-related, according to Maine FIRS. In 2001, more than 32,000 calls were recorded, with approximately 46 percent being EMS. When emergency responders get to a scene makes a big difference when it comes to what residents and municipalities pay for insurance costs.

The Insurance Services Office of Jersey City, N.J., rates every community in the country based on several factors, including response times, equipment, location, fire hydrants, personnel and water sources available.

The lower the classification, a number from 1 to 10, the better the insurance rate.

The ISO Web site states that “much of the United States has marginal or inadequate fire protection, placing people and property at risk.”

Portland and Bangor have ISO ratings of 2. Brewer and Augusta have ISO ratings of 4/9, which means where there are hydrants, the rating is 4, and without hydrants, the rating is 9. Dover-Foxcroft has an ISO of 5/9, and Hope has an ISO of 9.

Several conclusions can be drawn from the response time figures, but the most significant is that volunteer firefighters in particular need to be available and well-trained to maintain Maine’s practice of quick response times.

Portland’s deputy chief said he holds volunteer departments in high regard, especially since volunteers no longer can just sign up; now they required to be certified first responders.

“I just don’t know how they’re surviving,” Walsh said. “People have less time, and the required training is so extensive now. I can’t even imagine what the volunteers are going through. I have to tip my hat to them.”