Some towns rely heavily on part-timers

Many communities north of Boston, including some of the wealthier suburbs, choose to rely on fire departments that essentially close up shop after dark.

That means when residents dial 911 at night, the firefighters who respond -- usually trained citizens who hold other day jobs -- must first dash from their homes to the station and then suit up before racing to the fire.

That delay can be critical. In several of the towns, including Boxford, Rowley, and Topsfield, residents typically wait longer than six minutes for the first engine to arrive, records show.

''People think we are here all the time. The average person in Topsfield has no idea we are [an on-call] fire department," said Topsfield Fire Chief Ronald Giovannacci.

But voters this spring will have a chance to change that. A plan to be considered at May Town Meeting would add five full-time firefighters. Topsfield has just four now, plus 20 civilians on call. The five would be cross-trained as para-medics, allowing Topsfield to stop paying for ambulance service from an outside contractor -- and it would allow the town's sole fire station to be staffed 24/7.

It would also raise property taxes, costing the average homeowner an additional $70.58 a year, based on the town's 2005 tax rate.

Yet even a round-the-clock fire department with many part-timers can't guarantee fast response times or adequate staffing. Consider Ipswich.

On a January night in 2001, Lisa Collum and her two young daughters died in a house fire. The first responders were a single full-time firefighter and some volunteer firefighters with no gear. The two other full-time firefighters on duty that night were tied up on medical calls.

A year later, voters rejected a plan that would have added more full-time firefighters -- and raised property taxes. Today, Ipswich has 18 full-time firefighters and 18 citizens on call to cover 33 square miles from two stations. And the on-call force of firefighters, who are paid for each blaze they respond to, is shrinking. In 1982 the town had 36 on-call firefighters.

''If you are trying to support a large mortgage in town, the doctors and the lawyers and the stockbrokers, there's not too many of them that want to sign up and be on the call force," said Ipswich Fire Lieutenant Dennis Durrell.

Rowley is having the same problem. Fire Chief James Broderick has just two full-timers and 23 on-call members to cover 19 square miles from one station. He had 27 on-call firefighters in 2002. The chief said he needs a second fire station. Voters have rejected plans to beef up the department, even as $500,000 homes spring up on the town's outskirts.

The town posted the worst response rate in the region between 1986 and 2002, arriving at building fires within six minutes just 32.4 percent of the time, far below the industry standard of 90 percent.

''It could take up to 20 minutes to get there in some parts of town," Broderick said.

But apparently fire protection is not on the radar screen for most home buyers.

''No one has ever asked me about that," said Jay Burnham, a Beverly-based real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, who sells homes throughout the area. ''In 22 years, I have never been asked about the police or fire department."

Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com

On-time

response:

The Boston Globe used a 6-minute standard as a benchmark to analyze the response time of local fire departments. The figure presented is the percentage of fires responded to within that time frame.

Best:

100

Melrose and Nahant

1986-2002

Worst:

32.4

Rowley 1986-2002

SOURCE: Boston Globe research, National Fire Incident Reporting System.