MEXICO — It really is a “win-win” arrangement,” Fire Chief Gary Wentzell said of the decision to have his department provide coverage to Byron.

“The town of Byron has a small population base,” Wentzell said, “somewhere in the neighborhood of 160.” Consequently the Byron Fire Department has had a shortage of manpower, he said.

“I think they were down to six members on the staff at the time of our merger,” Wentzell said. “Making matters worse is the increasing training demands that are put on departments by the state that require enormous amounts of time.”

He said Byron selectmen asked him to address the issue.

“We recently agreed that Mexico would provide fire service to Byron for 15 years in exchange for Byron’s giving us their firetruck,” Wentzell said. “Fifteen years from now we can decide from there.”

Wentzell said Byron gets between six and 12 emergency calls a year. “A lot of them are ATV/snowmobile emergencies as well as car-moose collisions. We will be getting a few of their firefighters who live in that area.”

On Tuesday, Wentzell was putting finishing touches on the Byron firetruck. Erik’s Designs of Rumford had just finished the Mexico Fire Department lettering on the 1995 Kenworth tanker.

                        dfayen@sunjournal.com