RUMFORD – Fire Lt. Rob Dixon hopes that all multi-unit buildings in town will eventually have a plan for evacuation if ever a fire or other emergency happens.

But with the limited resources available to the Fire Department, he has to prioritize.

The largest apartment building in town, the Muskie Building, today will be the focus of designing just such an emergency plan.

“We hope to mutually identify some of their emergency egress needs with our operational needs,” Dixon said Thursday.

Jeff Hamm, property manager of the 88-unit complex on Congress Street, said he hopes that he and others who work at the building will have a written plan in place once the session is completed.

“We have concerns for the tenants. We want them all to be safe and comfortable,” he said.

The Portland-based Stanford Management group owns and operates the building. Right now, about 110 people occupy the building; eight units are not rented.

Hamm, along with events coordinator Darcy Cameron, head maintenance person Harold Wilson, and Dee Downs, environmental manager, will meet with Dixon and two or three other firefighters at 9 a.m. today.

Among issues that must be addressed are planning for the evacuation of tenants who may be immobile or on oxygen.

Either condition would affect how firefighters respond to an emergency, Dixon said.

The emergency exits should be numbered, he suggested, and the department should know the location of apartments of those who are immobile or who may have oxygen tanks.

Dixon said the department created a similar plan for the former veterans clinic on Lincoln Avenue, and continues to update an evacuation plan for Rumford Hospital as an addition and renovation project continues.

Once a written plan has been prepared, and the weather improves, Hamm said a drill will be held to try it out.

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