Rochester may not see an overwhelming number of emergencies, but added help is needed with the town’s Fire Department says Town Administrator Richard LaCamera.

To meet with staffing needs, LaCamera asked the Board of Selectmen on April 9 to approve the hire of a part-time Emergency Medical Technician.

“We’ve been struggling the last couple of years to cover ambulances,” LaCamera said. “We have two part-time people during the day but we don’t know what will happen at night so it’s hard to staff.”

The Fire Department received 342 calls last year, 136 of which required medical transport. This is not a high number of emergencies, he said, though it was enough to stretch the department too thin.

The average salary of a part-time EMT is $46,000, he said.

This amount should be covered by the fees from medical transports, he said. This year, LaCamera said the town has already collected $89,000 in fees and should expect to collect an additional $7,000 per month.

LaCamera has scheduled a second meeting with the Selectmen and Fire Department Chief Scott Weigel for April 23 to further discuss the appointment.

In other business:

LaCamera issued a warning to residents that they should be “extremely careful of high fire conditions.” Due to the dry winter weather, LaCamera said that fires could be caused more easily than previous years.