By Joseph Edgerton
Staff Writer

As Frank Carpentino, former Goffstown Fire Chief, sat down to a final meal with his firefighters, area chiefs questioned the logic of combining the Goffstown Police and Fire Departments.

The Goffstown Board of Selectmen has instructed Police Chief Michael French to work with Carpentino and others on a plan to integrate both departments, and submit the plan by Jan. 3.

The concerns of Chief Scott Wiggin of Bedford and Chief Daniel MacDonald of New Boston center largely on the effect of the consolidation on the quality of service, and the difficulty of hiring and training personnel.

"A community needs to have a fire chief," said Wiggin. "I know other communities have done this, but I don't know of a community that has consolidated both departments and remained effective."

Wiggin is in command of 21 full-time and 12 on-call firefighters, and said the amount state training and standards between police and fire departments are beyond comparison.

"The state standards are totally different between police officers and firefighters," he said. "They're two different trades, and each has different standards of agility and training qualifications."

In addition to putting a strain on resources and time, Wiggin said the effects of the consolidation could put a strain on the emergency personnel themselves.

"I just don't know how thinly you can slice someone for a role. There are so many concerns that I have," he said. "Firefighters and police officers responding to an accident do things differently. Would a firefighter be expected to direct traffic, or stabilize and treat victims instead?"

Further, Wiggin said, a fire chief becomes familiar with being in command at an incident and must be able to coordinate response by multiple agencies.

"From what I know about the police side of things, there isn't a lot of experience with multiple agencies responding," he said. "Generally speaking, communities with a moderate to small population base will have a fire chief as the incident commander on scene."

To be fully qualified, a typical firefighter passes through levels of training that total nearly 400 hours combined.

"I'm not sure what type of quality individual you'd get if you put them through two kinds of training," he said. "There is so much to know and respond to that it's difficult to be efficient and effective in both fields."

Wiggin is also concerned about safety issues, and said the equipment common to police officers, such as pressurized cans of Mace, could be a hazard while fighting a fire. The storage of firearms, should firefighters be armed, would require modification of emergency vehicles and could affect response time.

"Seconds and minutes count. They make all the difference in saving lives, and no police officer or firefighter would dispute that," he said.

New Boston Fire Chief Daniel MacDonald said the consolidation of the departments ignores the distinctions between them and threatens the quality of service that each can provide.

"A month ago, you had two highly trained and qualified departments, and now morale is taking a dive. This will transform a successful situation into chaos," he said. "They're going to lose a lot of their best people. Firefighters don't join the department to be police, and police don't join to be firefighters."

MacDonald said the consolidation will mean that new officers or firefighters must be trained in law enforcement and firefighting, but that current officers and firefighters may focus on their respective responsibilities.

"The real concern I have is that you can't combine agencies or departments and keep the same level of quality service," he said. "If you try to do that, one of two things happens: either there isn't enough time to be proficient, or more hires and more time training away from the station make the budget skyrocket."

The New Boston Fire Department is made up of MacDonald and 50 other volunteers, and in 2005 made 26 calls to Goffstown.

"Mutual aid is a way of life, but it is the exception rather than the rule," he said. "If people get frustrated and leave, Goffstown will depend more on mutual aid. That's not a bad thing, but it will increase the response time."

Voters will consider the consolidation of the police and fire departments at the 2006 Town Meeting.