Deer Isle honors longtime firefighters

Volunteers say the hours are worth it, but highlight recruiting challenges

March 10, 2026

By Jessica Hardy

From left, firefighters John Weed, Billy Dammier and Russell Bray. Photo courtesy of Mallory Reese/Deer Isle Fire Department.

Three longtime firefighters were honored on March 4  for more than 100 combined years of service to the Deer Isle Fire Department.

Russell Bray, John Weed, and Billy Dammier were honored for their hard work and commitment to the department and community at the fire station's monthly meeting. 

Weed retired at the end year after serving 45 years in the department, Dammier retired a few years before after 31 years, and Bray served more than 30 years, retiring due to his health.

Brent Morey, Deer Isle’s fire chief said it was time to honor the men for all of their dedication, devotion and service to the department. 

“All three of them are all firefighter certified. They go through a lot of training,” Morey said. “These guys just know a lot. It was something we needed to do. These guys are gonna be missed.”

Dammier said he was honored by the recognition for his service, which he admitted began with the “fun” of driving large trucks with sirens and lights.

“It was quite an honor. I joined up to help out, fight fires and take people out of cars in accidents,” Dammier said.

After 10 years of department service, Dammier became the training office for Deer Isle. While he retired from the department after many decades of service, he still remains active in the Surry Fire Department on a part-time basis.

“It’s all about being a team. John [Weed], Brent [Morey] and Jim [Foley] were a good team. You gotta have a team and have people you can rely on,” Dammier said. “There’s also an underlying reason why you do it. There were plenty of times I got back from a structure fire or whatever, [and I] hugged the family right after.”

Years before Bray joined the department, he encountered his home filled with smoke–twice. 

“The second time we were home and all of a sudden smoke poured out of the heat registers. I jumped up and went to see what was going on in the furnace. I opened up the furnace, looked in and the fan was on fire,” Bray said. His wife Carol called the department.

“While she was doing that, we waited and I was thinking, how am I going to put this out?” Bray said.

Bray started his firefighting career when his wife was an EMT and while Dammier, who was already a volunteer for the department, encouraged him to join. When Bray was asked what he liked most about being a firefighter he said he just enjoyed it.

“I like being around the firefighters and working on trucks. When I was younger, I did Firefighter One [training], so I could do interior attack and everything,” Bray said. “I guess [it’s] the adrenaline rush. It was a pretty good draw.”

As the older generation of firefighters are approaching retirement, departments are finding it difficult to attract younger people to the service. Dammier said that becoming a firefighter requires a lot of training hours, dedication and time. Required training now consists of more than 400 hours.

“I got my Firefighter One [training] and we were ready to fight fires. Now, they have to go to the academy,” Dammier said. “A lot of people are backing out because most  of them have jobs and families. They just haven’t got time [for training], let alone going on calls.”

Morey agreed that recruitment poses challenges.

“We had a dry spell and [we] weren’t getting any new members. Nobody was interested in volunteering,” Morey said.

Bray said the training requires commitment.

“The biggest drawback, I think: There is just so much training. But you know, I went through it. I put 200 hours of training in before I could do interior [attack] and all that,” Bray said.

“There were a lot of good memories and a lot of bad memories. For the most part I enjoyed the time there,” Bray said. “It just gave me a sense of giving back to the community.”