RUMFORD — Selectmen and Finance Committee recommendations for the Fire Department’s 2011-12 budget could reduce firefighters’ effectiveness, Chief Bob Chase said.

If town meeting voters follow the two boards’ guidance in June, Chase said, the Fire Department would be forced to reduce the 24-hour, three-member crew of professional firefighters to two members for several days.

That, in turn, would severely hamper their ability to fight fires as quickly as possible, or to rescue people trapped inside a burning structure, Chase said.

“(The Occupational Safety and Health Administration) does require when you attack a fire what they call a two men in, two men out rule,” he said at a Finance Committee public hearing Wednesday night.

“So, for two members entering a hazardous environment, you must also have two members who are qualified to rescue them standing by outside, and that two-in, two-out rule really is the general philosophy for four men getting going so that when they arrive on scene — irregardless of the delay that’s apparent from some coming from home — we’re able to at least start with our firefighting operation.”

Unless selectmen change the ballot between now and then, residents can only vote for either recommendation or neither, which would send the budget back to both groups for a second go-round.

But it wouldn’t tell them whether the majority voting for neither wanted the budget increased or decreased, and therein lies the problem with the ballots, town officials have said.

Due to the tough economy, a majority of selectmen last month pared the chief’s request for $711,363 to $678,000 as their recommendation to town meeting voters on June 14.

On Wednesday night, five of nine committee members approved a recommendation of $700,000, despite Chase’s attempts to explain how it would affect his department’s level of services.

According to town law, neither selectmen nor committee members can tell a department head what to cut if voters approve either amount.

The adverse effects discussion started when committee member David Kimball asked Chase if he was required by union rule to have a three-man staff.

Chase said the National Fire Protection Association standard that firefighters judge themselves against is how quickly they can get an engine company to the scene and begin fighting a fire.

“The direction in which we were headed three or four years ago was with four men on duty; we’re going with an engine and a ladder truck and four men,” he said.

“Through an erosion of funding from over $900,000 to $675,000, we’re now down to a three-man staff,” Chase said.

“And what that did, with regard to the NFPA standard, was through the past year, had we been rolling out with four, we would have been accomplishing that success rate 74 percent of the time.”

However, he added, “By being staffed to three guys in the station and with the inherent delay of the first call force men to arrive, our success rate with regard to that standard drops to 37 percent.”

“With a further reduction to two-man staffing and having to wait for the arrival of two call force men on scene, the success rate for that standard drops to 17 and a half percent of the time,” he said.

“So it really does affect the level of service for how quick you want us to begin firefighting operations.”

Chase said those success rate percentages are based on the first responding call force member arriving within a minute and the second call force member arriving one minute after the first.

He said the four firefighters required by the OSHA rule must all be qualified to use air packs to perform rescues.

Chase said he has a 24-member call force, of whom 15 are certified for interior attacks on structure fires.

If voters approve the committee’s recommended budget of $700,000, he said, it would mean that when one member of his three-member station crew was out sick, on vacation or on days off, he wouldn’t be able to fill that slot, leaving only two members on duty.

If voters OK the selectmen’s recommended budget of $678,000, Chase said that further limits him to a two-member station crew for 60 days of the year.

“We can’t sit here and second guess what your needs are going to be,” Finance Committee Vice Chairman Ted Hotham said. “We can only make a reasonable amount. It’s still in the hands of voters.”

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