Paid firefighters not returning to area stations

By Josephine Johnson

Paid firefighters who were moved out of four stations near College Park in June are not scheduled to return, the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department announced Oct. 11.

The department reassigned 55 career firefighters—those paid by the county—from Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights, Bowie and Bunker Hill to other fire stations in an effort to reduce overtime for their firefighters.

As a result, the College Park Volunteer Fire Department is taking more calls for help from neighboring firehouses that are short-staffed and unable to respond, according to President Pete Piringer, who estimated his team’s response time has increased by approximately 10%.

“We’re running more calls,” Piringer said. “You need more equipment and more personnel to respond. … With the staffing reallocations by the county, sometimes volunteers aren’t available in other stations; therefore, the next closest available unit will respond, and that’s often us.”

Piringer said College Park’s two fire departments—his and the all-volunteer Branchville Volunteer Fire Co.—and those in Hyattsville, Riverdale, Beltsville and Laurel are affected by the summertime staffing shakeup.

Average emergency response times as of Oct. 11 were 5 minutes, 39 seconds for the Berwyn Heights Volunteer Fire Department; 6 minutes, 6 seconds for the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department; 7 minutes, 55 seconds at the Bowie Volunteer Fire Department’s Belair station; and 6 minutes, 9 seconds at the Bunker Hill Volunteer Fire Co., according to the county.

The county’s average response time standard is eight minutes, according to Piringer. Likewise, National Fire Protection Administration standards call for  firefighters, resources and equipment to arrive at an emergency within eight minutes.

College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir said those times are too high.

“They’re saying that this is good enough, which is not really ideal, because if a fire breaks out, then every minute counts, every second actually counts,” he said. 

The county declined to supply data about response times at specific stations before and after the reallocation of staff. College Park Here & Now has filed a Maryland Public Information Act request for that data.

Kabir said he expected response times to increase with the removal of paid staff from nearby firehouses.

“When you don’t have enough staffing in the fire stations, you don’t actually expect things getting better,” Kabir said. “You definitely expect things getting worse.” 

Piringer called the staffing problem “just a challenging situation for everybody.”

Kabir said the reallocation plan “looks like” a funding issue, and suggested that the communities could work together to find a solution. 

In fact, the county fire department saved approximately $1.8 million in overtime pay in July, August and September compared with the same months in 2023, according to the Oct. 11 announcement. 

While Alan Doubleday, the county fire department’s public information director, acknowledged the reallocation had a “significant budget impact,” he said the motive for removing career personnel from the four stations was not financial.

“​​This had nothing to do with money,” Doubleday said. “This was about the safety and well-being of our firefighters, who were tremendously overworked, were working work schedules that weren’t feasible. And we were just concerned for their safety and their mental health and their physical health.” 

Prince George’s County has a shortage of about 250 firefighters, and will hire 150 career firefighters this fiscal year, according to the Oct. 11 announcement.

“Being short 251 firefighters is something that we’ve never faced before,” Doubleday said.

County Fire Chief Tiffany Green said in a memo to employees and volunteers that the county has started sending firefighters to the Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights companies from other stations elsewhere in the county to help during emergencies and “ensure enhanced coverage for service demand.”

Green also said the Greenbelt station will get a second emergency medical response unit, which she said will not “substantially” increase the need for overtime.

Green said in the memo she is hopeful that incoming recruits will reduce the staffing deficit. She also said she will “continue to push and advocate” for more paid staff during fiscal year 2026 budget negotiations.