By THEODORE ROSE

PHOTO CREDIT Giuseppe Lopiccolo
Career firefighters returned to the Prince George’s County Bunker Hill fire station on Dec. 29, 2024 — the only one of four stations to see paid staff return after reallocations last June, according to a Dec. 6 county fire/emergency medical services (EMS) department press release.
The county’s fire/EMS department announced a reallocation plan in June 2024 in response to a career firefighter shortage exacerbated by the pandemic, according to the press release. At the time, the county had 251 fewer career firefighters than their target goal of 1,224.
As part of the plan, all 55 career firefighters from four local stations — Berwyn Heights Volunteer Fire Department (VFD), Greenbelt VFD, Bowie VFD’s Belair station and Bunker Hill Volunteer Fire Company — were moved to stations countywide.
Although the Laurel VFD lost none of its staffing in June 2024, it received a total of 24 staff over four shifts and an upgraded paramedic ambulance due to a “response vulnerability” noticed by the department, according to the Dec. 6 press release. An analysis by the fire/EMS department showed the station had no staffing during evenings, nights and weekends.
The county’s reallocation plan moved 20 career firefighters from the Bunker Hill fire station, leaving essentially a closed firehouse, according to the county’s International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1619 president, Grant Walker.
“[Bunker Hill] has not had productive volunteer support for the last 15 years,” Walker told the Life & Times. “So functionally, when the county decided they were going to remove the career staff from there, they were saying to the citizens, ‘Everything is going to be fine,’ knowing that there [were] no volunteers going to respond from that firehouse.”
Alan Doubleday, the public information director for the county’s fire/EMS department, said the original 20 firefighters were sent back to the Bunker Hill station because response times to local emergencies became unacceptably high — the county’s standard response time is eight minutes. The county also allotted Bunker Hill a new paramedic engine, an ambulance with advanced life support, and four additional career staff, according to Doubleday and the release.