PARIS – Gilead’s fire chief said he is “saddened” that a $1,000 bill for rescuing high school students and teachers is being questioned by SAD 17.

The bill represents the Fire Department’s cost for helping in a three-hour search and rescue of eight Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students and two teachers on Dec. 8, Chief Ken Cole said.

The hikers, part of a Wilderness Leadership class at the school, were spotted by a Maine Warden Service plane walking through up to 3 feet of snow on Route 113 in the White Mountain National Forest.

A blizzard descended on them Saturday, Dec. 6, a day after they started their weekend trip. Parents and district officials became concerned when they didn’t emerge from the woods on Sunday, Dec. 7, as planned.

“The Gilead Fire Department would have done anything, regardless of cost, to aid in the rescue of these individuals,” Cole wrote in a Jan. 23 letter to SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman. “We put no dollar value on human life. I’m concerned that SAD 17 officials are more worried over the checking accounts.”

Eastman’s premise, in questioning the bill, was that the district did not request any help from Gilead, he said. He wanted to know who authorized the involvement.

Cole told him the Fire Department’s help was requested by the Maine Warden Service.

On Friday, Eastman said he hadn’t had a chance to review the letter. If Cole’s explanation of the charges warrants further attention, Eastman said he’ll take it up with the finance committee.

“We said all along that we wanted to be good neighbors,” Eastman said. “But if someone has the attitude that we shouldn’t question a bill, they ought to get over that.”

Cole said when they got the call, the condition and location of the hikers was unknown. The Fire Department responded “as we normally would, with as many personnel and the appropriate equipment that we deemed we may possibly need to rapidly locate and extricate the hikers.”

Furthermore, Cole said, “This equipment (snowmobile, rescue sled, bucket loader) was discussed and requested by the superior officer of the Warden Service.”

The town, with a population of 157 and an $8,000 annual fire department budget, has a policy of billing for fire and rescue operations involving nonresidents. There were eight fire personnel involved on the call.

“The Gilead Fire Department takes great pride in our response and professionalism,” Cole wrote. “We are a small department with a small budget trying to do the best possible with many limits and restraints, but our biggest assets are our hearts.”

The Maine Warden Service spent $3,631.79 in the search and rescue. As of Friday, no decision had been made on whether to seek reimbursement for those costs from the school district.

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