AUBURN  — Frank Roma began work as a 17-year-old junior firefighter in his hometown of Philadelphia before moving on to Minnesota and Texas, where he fought fires in a suburb of Dallas for 20 years. As he nears his first anniversary as chief of the Auburn Fire Department, we ask what brought him to Maine.

Name: Frank Roma

Age: 56

Hometown: Philadelphia

Single, Relationship or Married? Single

Children? A daughter and two sons

Were you one of those kids who always grew up wanting to be a firefighter? A lot of firefighters grow up with family on the job as firefighters. I didn’t. What I did have, however, was a mother who always seemed interested in chasing a fire truck. From a very young age, I was thrown into back of a car and was chasing fire trucks to see what was happening, I think that’s what piqued my interest.

How did you come to Maine? As a young man, my family vacationed in Maine. I fell in love with Maine at a very young age. Texas was very good to me and my family, but I always hoped that one day when I retired I’d have the opportunity to get north again. Then, the Auburn opportunity came.

Do you miss the days when you would be the one with the hose or an ax? Absolutely. I think some of the best experiences and opportunities I’ve had in the fire service was a firefighter and a company officer. But I also realize that this is a young person’s job. The greatest challenge that I have, and the greatest rewards I attain at this point, is to be able to see the young firefighters coming up through the organization and to see them grow.

What challenges are you facing in Auburn? Some of them are geographic. In Texas, we didn’t have a lot of ice rescues. So, I had a refresher on cold weather operations. We’re also a city of 66-plus square miles, spread out in a very lengthy manner. Basically each of our three stations covers 22 square miles, which is huge. Throw into that the older downtown section where we have combustible buildings that are built close together. Certainly, we all remember what happened in Lewiston in May and June. That potential exists here today.

How has the budget situation made things tougher? The biggest challenge has been one that perhaps wasn’t on the horizon when I started nearly a year ago. And that is the effect of the reduction in revenue sharing on the city’s budget and our ability to operate, not just the fire department but all of our departments. The Auburn Fire Department has been a lean operation. Now we’ve become a department where we’re beyond lean. And we have to continue to try to find ways to provide sustainable fire service in the future, particularly when it doesn’t appear that the fiscal situation is going to greatly improve.

How do you deal with folks who start fires stupidly? One of the great gifts of being involved in the fire service is that we get to see humanity at every level. We get to see the best of it, and at times, unfortunately, we see the worst of it. The one constant that runs through that is that we’re all fallible. Regardless off how good our efforts are in educating the public, there are always going to be those times when someone either didn’t get the message or didn’t understand the message. Our job is to not be discouraged.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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