The Berwyn Heights Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad added four career firefighters and two emergency medical technicians to its staff on Nov. 17, 17 months after the county reassigned the station’s full-time responders to other locations in June 2024.
The paid emergency workers will staff the day shift from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“This is very, very, very good news,” College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir said. He noted that the Berwyn Heights station, located next door to College Park, regularly assists the city’s two fire departments with emergencies.
Then–Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Chief Tiffany Green relocated career firefighters and EMS personnel from stations in Berwyn Heights, Bowie-Belair, Bunker Hill and Greenbelt as part of a staffing plan she said would address countywide shortages and firefighter fatigue.
Kabir said the reallocation affected College Park because Berwyn Heights rescue workers often respond to emergencies when the Branchville Volunteer Fire Co. and the College Park Volunteer Fire Department are unavailable.
The Branchville station, located on Branchville Road in College Park, is staffed solely with volunteers, while the College Park and Berwyn Heights stations operate as combination stations with both career firefighters and volunteers.
Berwyn Heights Fire Chief Benjamin Ross said there were times after the reallocation when the firehouse had too few volunteers to staff the day shift. During those shifts the county sometimes sent an engine and crew from elsewhere to cover the station.
Ross said the removal of career staff led to volunteer burnout and that the station’s ladder truck and rescue squad were occasionally unavailable.
“Our firehouse was always in service prior to the career members being removed,” Ross said. “Now that they have been restored, I believe we will always be available again.”
Bino Harris, chief deputy with the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department, said all county fire stations are expected to respond to calls both inside and outside their immediate coverage area.
“We always send the closest appropriate resource for the call,” Harris said. “If they’re available, they’re going.”
After the reallocation, College Park, Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights challenged the decision in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, arguing that removing career firefighters would reduce service coverage. The court denied their request to stop the move.
Kabir said the three municipalities pushed back together because each is affected when any nearby station’s staffing changes.
County officials said the return of career staff to Berwyn Heights is possible because more firefighters and EMTs have recently graduated from the county’s Fire/EMS Training Academy.
Harris said adding the day shift back at Berwyn Heights will improve coverage.
“If we can add that additional resource, add those hours of availability, we will certainly see the impact in that it can only make it better,” he said.
Ross said the change will take pressure off volunteers, allowing them to go to work or school during the day and continue volunteering at night. He also noted that Berwyn Heights has the closest heavy rescue squad to College Park and the University of Maryland.
Last December, the county returned 24 firefighters and emergency medical responders to the Bunker Hill station.
Harris said career firefighters are expected to return to the Greenbelt and Bowie-Belair stations as staffing allows. “We’re deploying them as fast as we can,” he said.