HARRISON – A brawl broke out late Friday near the beach at Harrison Old Home Days, raising questions about whether adequate security was provided at the festival.

Several people were injured in the fighting that broke out near the beach area just after 10 p.m.

Three deputies from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department responded, and were on the scene for several hours, said sheriff’s Capt. William Rhoads.

Rhoads said Monday he had not yet seen the report of the incident, but that no arrests have been made.

Because of budget cutbacks and staffing shortages, Rhoads said, extra law enforcement coverage is not being provided at summer festivals unless the town agrees to pay for it as an outside detail.

Harrison’s Old Home Days Committee opted to provide its own security this year, said Harrison Town Manager Michael Thorne.

“I’m not sure they provided as much security as they usually do,” he said of the committee.

Old Home Days Committee President Chris Searles could not be reached for comment.

Kaitlyn McCormack, 20, a summer resident of Waterford who has attended many Old Home Days, said she was appalled at the lack of security at the event.

“That location is where fights break out year after year,” she said. “It’s kind of like an unwritten rule that after dark, you don’t walk down to the beach,” because that’s where, traditionally, teens from the Lakes Region towns of Casco and Bridgton face off against teens from Harrison and other Oxford Hills towns.

She said that when the fighting began, she couldn’t find any police or security people, and pleaded with an adult at a concession stand for help. She said one man working at the fair who tried to intercede in the fighting got hit in the head. At least two people were taken by Harrison Rescue to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway for treatment.

Rhoads said he wasn’t aware of any hospital transport.

“By the time we got there, everything was said and done,” and those involved in the fighting had blended back into the crowd, Rhoads said. He said Sgt. Tom Williams, the first deputy on the scene, told him that several adults who were working security at the festival “may have overstepped their bounds, and appeared to be intoxicated.”

Rhoads said that there were two undercover deputies at the four-day Old Home Days event assigned to monitor underage drinking, but that no summonses were issued.

Rhoads said Harrison contracts with the Sheriff’s Department for dedicated coverage, which includes an extra deputy in the summer. That deputy, Regan Gowan, was working the festival that night and was just getting off duty when the fighting began, Rhoads said.

Rhoads said Thorne has asked the Sheriff’s Department to include a special detail for Old Home Days in next year’s contract for services.