An early morning call to fight a roaring scrap metal fire was just the beginning of a “very busy day” and a demanding capacity test of South Berwick’s new town-based EMS service.
The Fire Department received nine calls between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. on June 11, beginning with a call to assist the Berwick Fire Department with a large scrap metal fire on Route 236, according to South Berwick Fire Chief Nick Hamel.
“We covered all the emergencies (that day) utilizing a combination of on and off duty full-time firefighters and on-call firefighters,” Hamel wrote in an email. “In total, there were 21 SBFD members who responded at one point or another throughout the day.”
On that “very busy day,” as it was described in the department’s Facebook post, three pieces of fire apparatus were at the scrap yard fire in Berwick and both South Berwick ambulances were out on calls, Hamel said.
Firefighters from the Newington, N.H., Fire Department covered South Berwick and Berwick from the South Berwick station for a few hours that day and assisted on five calls in town.
Three patients were transported in Ambulance 1, the town’s primary ambulance, and one was transported in Ambulance 2 – the back-up ambulance that was “ironically put into service (later) that day,” said Hamel.
Dover Fire & Rescue handled one transport prior to Ambulance 2 being officially in service.
The South Berwick Fire Department began its new EMS-based service May 31 after York Ambulance completed its final shift serving South Berwick for the past 12 years, a month ahead of the contract’s July 1 deadline, according to Hamel.
“Luckily, we were staffed and ready to pick up where they left off. Much of the preparation work to get ready for the July 1 cutover had to be accelerated,” he said. “I’m very proud of our members, who across the board have risen to the occasion.”
Call volume in June has also been busier than expected, with 62 fire and EMS calls – 15 of them fire and 47 EMS, Hamel said.
Initial feedback from townspeople, personnel, hospitals and other first responders has been overwhelmingly positive regarding recent changes at the Fire Department, Hamel said, adding, “I wasn’t expecting the outpouring of positive feedback from everyone involved. We truly appreciate the support.”
Hamel had proposed the combined model of fire and emergency medical services at a Town Council meeting in April 2025. The plan was approved by voters in May 2025, with its implementation scheduled for July 2026.
At the time Hamel acknowledged the combined model, already being adopted by other communities due to staffing shortages in both fields, would require “a change in mindset” in South Berwick.
People should look at a town ambulance service as community-focused rather than contract-focused, he suggested at the April meeting, citing benefits such as long-term department stability, improved community engagement, and better means of keeping town residents safe around the clock.
Paid firefighters, crossed trained as either emergency medical technicians or paramedics, would be ready to respond immediately, he told the council, instead of requiring residents in need of medical assistance to wait for arrival of an out-of-town ambulance.
The South Berwick Fire Department continues to recruit staff and currently has eight full-time firefighters – four EMTs and four paramedics – working their assigned shifts, two of them on duty 24/7.
Four EMT firefighter candidates are currently going through the process of qualifying for the additional positions approved at annual Town Meeting May 19. When hired, they would increase shift staffing to three on duty 24/7.
Paramedics are the highest level of prehospital providers, Hamel noted, and each shift now has one paramedic firefighter and one EMT firefighter on duty.
