The Oakland Town Council has given the town’s fire chief authority to apply for a federal grant that could lead to hiring the town’s first full-time firefighters.

Currently, only Chief David Coughlin is a full-time employee. The department is staffed on a daily basis by a member of the firefighting corps paid on a per diem basis. Call firefighters respond from home to fires and other emergencies.

The grant, which would come from a fund established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, would provide an amount equal to pay and benefits for two firefighters for two years. That estimated cost is $180,000 to 200,000 per year.

However, some councilors were reluctant to endorse the permanent addition of paid firefighters to the department’s roster.

“We have probably the most efficient fire department in the state of Maine,” Councilor Mark Fisher said. “It’s completely volunteer, although the volunteers do get paid. I think it changes the direction that is going in, and I don’t like the change.”

Councilor Michael Perkins called the grant a “double-edge sword,” saying that offering the town funding for two jobs for two years could mean that firefighters passed over for the full-time jobs would lose interest in continuing to serve as volunteers.

“They could say, ‘What’s happening? You didn’t hire me. I’m moving on,” Perkins said.

Noting that the deadline for applying for the money is coming up on Feb. 28, Bowman told councilors that even if the town applies and wins the funding, it still can be turned down.

Coughlin said he is facing increasing difficulty attracting new blood to the department, especially given the evolution of fire departments over the years. In the early years of firefighting, the volunteers’ role was putting out fires, but now that has evolved to include all types of emergencies, he said.

“Right now, we have more guys over 60 than under the age of 30,” Coughlin said. “The incidents we are responding to, it’s over 1,000 a year now. It puts a burden on the call members to balance work, family life and volunteerism.”

Councilors voted 4-1 to apply for the funding with only Perkins voting against making the application.

Already, Coughlin has initiated a survey to gauge the response from Oakland residents about whether they want to add the town’s first full-time firefighters. He said the department would document the use of the full-timers in order to make a case at Town Meeting for keeping them after the grant runs out.

Coughlin said he sees the need in the firefighting service’s expanded mission, which includes rescue work and other nonfire emergency response .

“We’re called out on a lot more things than we were in the past,” he said. “It’s an all-hazard rather than specifically a fire department.”