CASTINE, Maine — At 7 a.m. on New Year’s Day, an organization that has served residents of this tight-knit coastal community during their times of greatest need will quietly close its doors.
The sirens of Castine’s EMS corps, Bagaduce Ambulance, are going silent on Sunday after 35 years of operation, an apparent victim to staffing challenges faced by volunteer fire and rescue crews across Maine.
To fill the void, Castine officials have arranged for a private service provider that already serves towns on the Blue Hill peninsula — Peninsula Ambulance Corps — to handle emergency calls. Some former Bagaduce members are also offering to assist as “first responders” to the scene during the 20 to 30 minutes it will take for a Peninsula ambulance to arrive.
“We expect response times to be a little longer but not a great deal longer and, at the same time, we are in the process of setting up the first-responder program,” said Dale Abernethy, Castine’s town manager.
But in addition to longer response times, Bagaduce’s closure also represents a loss of a local institution that has been part of the literal lifeblood of Castine, which is home to Maine Maritime Academy, a mix of families and retirees and a vibrant summer tourism scene.
“This is a hard day,” Sarah Hudson, president of Bagaduce Ambulance, said Saturday.
Bagaduce’s board of directors voted unanimously in September to terminate operations due to ongoing difficulties finding enough volunteers to fill the three seats — one driver and two emergency medical technicians — needed for every ambulance response and transport. The town of Castine has increasingly relied on Peninsula Ambulance to respond to emergency calls when a team from Bagaduce was unavailable.
Bagaduce has about 35 active members, roughly half of which are certified as EMTs or higher and half of which are ambulance drivers.
Hudson, who founded Bagaduce Ambulance with several others in 1977, said the breaking point came earlier this year when not a single local resident signed up for her EMT training course for the first time in the 40 classes she has taught the class.
“I had nobody from the town. It was just MMA students,” Hudson said.
Asked why interest in volunteering with Bagaduce is declining, Hudson said there are likely a number of factors at play. The existing cadre of volunteers is aging and many younger residents are working multiple jobs or are busy with family, she said. But Hudson added that people seem less willing to make the commitment these days.
Castine’s situation is not unique.
“Unfortunately, it is not a new issue,” said Jay Bradshaw, director of Maine Emergency Medical Services, the division of the Department of Public Safety that coordinates all EMS activities in the state. “Around the state and around the country, there is a shortage of volunteers.”
Bradshaw said volunteerism levels ebb and flow but that communities in rural areas of Maine appear to be struggling the hardest to maintain adequate crew numbers. The reality is that being an EMT is not a job for everyone and some people find it difficult to either do the job or keep up with the time commitment or training requirements, he said.
Even some towns with part-time paid EMTs are struggling to come up with a system that works. Town officials in nearby Bucksport, which has a mix of both full-time firefighter/EMS providers and paid on-call members, are discussing shortages there. And other all-volunteer EMS units around the state have been forced to close in recent years.
Bradshaw said, while Bagaduce’s closure is regrettable, he hopes it could raise public awareness about the critical need for volunteers.
“People think you call 9-1-1 and an ambulance shows up,” Bradshaw said. “It’s hard for them to appreciate what it takes behind the scenes” to run an EMS unit.
Castine’s contract with Peninsula Ambulance will cost the town $11.44 per capita, or roughly $15,000. Abernethy praised Peninsula’s leadership for their willingness to work with the town and said he hopes the transition will go smoothly.
Bagaduce held an event to thank its volunteers in early December. But as the final hours ticked away on Saturday, Hudson said she wasn’t sure if she would go to the ambulance headquarters to turn off the lights early Sunday to mark the end of Bagaduce’s service to the town.
“I started it 35 years ago so it is very sad,” she said.
This is a real shame and what a loss to the Castine community. I feel bad for Sarah Hudson, who has put her heart and soul into Bagaduce. Having been an EMT-I nearly 30 years ago, I can attest to the long hours and crushing work these folks do. The average citizen who is unfamiliar with what a commitment these volunteer services require can’t begin to understand what a loss this is. Unlike the private companies, the folks who staff these volunteer services like Bagaduce, Herman, Carmel, and countless others have full-time jobs. In addition to staffing regular shifts, they also must constantly take part in training and certification to keep their licenses. I think Castine owes Sarah and the other volunteers a huge “thank you” for the many years of selfless service.
You have a point here. Not only do volunteers volunteer their time, there is 12 + hours of training needed a year to stay certified. Our local service almost crashed and I spent at least 10 hours helping out with a class just to train with them and help them. I am spending alot more energy on each run at present because almost my entire crew from drivers to medics are new. I see it as an investment so that someone will be there to help. Training takes alot of time and energy and hopefully by investing it, you get better help when you need it.
Just tax all the rich retirees, summer folks and tourists through the nose. Then there will be plenty of money to hire staff and not rely on volunteers. Duh.
Uh, Maine is already doing that and then some. The fact that it’s one of the lowest-populated states, yet is also one of the states with the most people on welfare isn’t helping any, either…since those on social services now apparently outnumber those paying taxes, don’t count on any new suckers to roll across the bridge in Kittery anytime soon.
Sarah, thank you for your decades of service–you’ve been a tireless godsend, and I’m so sorry we’re losing PAC.
Yeah, but not Castine. It’s full of rich folks and tourists.
Here we go again Seaglass, Blame it on the welfare. People should realize this is a smokescreen to dirvert from the real issues. Know what the real issues are? Start looking at all the bennies being given to Pauls special interest friends.
You gotta pay the responders a decent wage. Times have changed. You Pay, they will come.
Just charge the people who use the service, that’s my humble opinion. I’m willing to pay an annual fee, like insurance, but if you actually use the service, pay for it.
Never read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged did you? Go ahead, tax all the people you mentioned and see what happens.
Unfortuantly the pros do not out weigh the cons. Getting sued by some punk when you vol your time is not wortht he headache or hassle.
Response times will be a little longer but not a great deal longer!! Even with first responders 20 to 30 minutes to wait for an ambulance is too long!! That’s an eternity for a patient who is having chest pain, a stroke or in cardiac arrest. The day of the volunteer is gone. Time for full-time services for Castine.
You should listen to scanners and hear what’s in store for communities that have volunteer ambulance/recuse services go silent and rely on contracted services. It just might scare communities to find the funds.
Response times may be a little longer? sure, when another ambulance is available. What happens when PAC is busy with a multi-car wreck in Blue Hill, and then someone has a serious emergency in Castine ?? The town of Castine should have stepped up to the plate and put some funding into the service. I also have some fault to assign to Maine EMS; they offer little leadership up there in Augusta….
Then they will triage calls or your local first responders will have some hairy moments. We have a smaller community that has over the years built up a group of responders and they have an equiptment van in which they can store their equiptment, take it to scene and possibly move a patient to their local clinic. (They are more apt to use their own vehicles however) and serious cases are sometimes brought to an ambulance in private vehicles, where we meet halfway or so, and temporarily close the road to turn the ambulance around and transfer the patient. If the situation is bad enough, the locals will either pick up interest or get very creative.
We almost had this happen in our small community in Alaska this year. However a letter of concern was posted by a driver and we ended up with 6 or more ETTs and 2-3 EMTs. We are all volunteer and the shortest transport time is around 40 min with an average run being 4 hours to a urgent care clinic and back. Our community responded to the need and the first day we were able to respond as a complete unit, we did 3 calls. We have done a total of 9 in two months. I believe that the volunteer EMT or even firefighter may be a dying breed, in a time where our population is aging. For clarification the ETT has 80 hours of training and the EMT is the national level of training. It does take time and dedication. My hat is off to all who do this.
Sarah, thanks for all you have done to keep the squad rolling for as long as you did. May you get satisfaction in life for keeping the squad going as long as you did under the circumstances. May you find an answer to your problem that works.
squad 51 is available to take calls for Castine. Rampart will give them a helluva lot better treatment than emmc anyway!!
D5W Stat!
LifeFlight if it is bad enough and time is of the essence. What does it take a chopper to get to Castine? 20 minutes from turbine startup to landing?
And kudos to every first responder and particularly the volunteers. I can’t imagine that it ever gets easier to roll up on a scene of carnage and chaos and try and sort things out and provide life saving aid to people with serious injuries and worse…
Lifeflight is a great asset, but there are only two birds for the whole state, and can’t always fly due to weather. They also need people on the ground for patient information and an adequate landing zone set up. There is also the problem of transporting a patient to the landing zone.
I don’t disagree with you bob, on the number of birds available. I do think the current Castine incident vs. EMMC LF critical care response capacity is more then adequate though.
I was forced from volunteer service because federal and state requirements do not allow anyone with a family and full-time(and a half) job to meet the training time requirements. The feel-good lawmakers have created this monster.
EMS services for Hancock County are stretched way too thin as it is. As a county dispatcher I have had the displeasure of “shopping around” for an available unit when the “local” service was tied up, understaffed, or on a transport to Bangor or out of service. I have even had the displeasure of being told by other services that the call I am trying to get a rig for is “too far” out of their coverage area to respond to, or that they don’t have a crew available either. Imagine our excitement in telling a 911 caller that we’re sorry but we have no ambulance available to send to them or they will have to wait a while. Hard to believe in this day and age but it has happened and more than once. Those that serve on our county’s EMS crews work very hard to provide the best coverage they can and do a great job with the resources they have.
Job well done Sarah—————-for many years!