On Thursday, November 14, the Prince George’s County Council held a public meeting on the June 2024 county fire services reallocations. The seats in the chamber of the Wayne K. Curry Building were filled, with press standing at the back and some attendees at the sides.
Greenbelt residents turned out in force, along with City Councilmember Jenni Pompi and City Manager Josué Salmerón. The city provided two shuttle buses between Greenbelt and the county administration building in Largo, picking up residents at Green Ridge House, the city’s senior Section 8 housing, where there was a delayed response to a fire alarm in September.
The Staffing Need
Prince George’s County Fire Chief Tiffany Green provided an overview of the need for staffing changes, saying the choice was to remove 50 career firefighters from four stations (Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights, Bowie-Belair and Bunker Hill) or continue high levels of mandatory hold-overs and call backs at the end of shifts, risking firefighters’ mental health, burnout and errors. Green described the department as “resource constrained,” with the Advanced Life Support (ALS) component significantly understaffed and the Basic Life Support (BLS) nearly as challenged.
The reallocation has reduced overtime and callbacks by 77.88 percent, said Green, and has improved health, safety and wellness of personnel and reduced overtime spending.
Response times continue to meet
benchmarks as predicted, averaging 8 to 10 minutes on most calls, said Green. Volunteers are available for service as anticipated, including for Greenbelt, which is now in service 13 percent of the time, Berwyn Heights in service 89 percent of the time, Bladensburg 78 percent of the time, College Park in service 100 percent, Hyattsville 95 percent and Bowie in service 24 percent of the time. However, a considerable staffing deficit continues despite the reallocation, said Green. The Fire and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Department needs 1,224 personnel to be fully staffed, she said. They are currently budgeted for 1,142 but have only 1,004 sworn employees.
Despite what Green described as an aggressive recruitment campaign, due to attrition the fire department has increased by only one sworn staff member this year. In 2020 it had an attrition rate of 28 staff members. So far this calendar year it has lost 66 sworn staff members. Green also said Prince George’s County Fire Department struggles to be competitive, with the region’s lowest starting annual salary of $54,000.
“As students graduate and personnel become available, we will be going back into some of these stations,” said Green. She also highlighted the two EMS units stationed at Greenbelt. “This placed more EMS resources in Greenbelt and the Greenbelt community than it had before the reallocation of career firefighters and paramedics,” said Green, “and we are utilizing system status management to deploy a fire suppression resource to the area of Berwyn Heights and Greenbelt,” she said.
Deputy Fire Chief James McClelland said in Greenbelt, since the reassignments of career firefighters, there have been 722 incident responses, with an average response time of six minutes and three seconds. The majority of calls were EMS- or BLS-related. McClelland said that using dynamic unit placement and moving resources around, units go where they are needed. “They are now no longer just community resources. They are county resources and we move them where the demand is,” he said.
Firefighter Leaders Respond
Grant Walker, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Prince George’s County expressed concern with the data and the standards used. He pointed out that the fire stations look to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) for their guidelines. “The NFPA standard says the first on-scene units should be there in four minutes not eight. Prince George’s County meets this standard 30 percent of the time,” said Walker.
Donald Wells, president of Prince George’s County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, gave remarks in which he noted they have fewer volunteers today than two years ago. Volunteers are being “left out of the loop” on training standards and lack of access to classes to reach benchmarks, Wells complained.
Local Politicians Respond
Danielle Carter, a town councilmember from Mount Rainier, called for the hiring of basic EMTs to staff ambulances rather than requiring they also be trained firefighters. Hiring basic EMTs would lead to trained personnel to staff ambulances in weeks instead of months, she argued.
Bladensburg Mayor Takisha James expressed her deep concerns about the reductions in Greenbelt and stations like it, the impact of which reverberates through surrounding communities, she said. She added that Bladensburg stands in solidarity with Greenbelt and others.
Mayor Fazlul Kabir of College Park expressed concern and frustration saying the two fire stations in College Park are facing greater pressure and experiencing longer response times since the reallocations from neighboring Berwyn Heights and Greenbelt. Kabir wanted to know not just average response times but how many calls exceeded standard response times and wanted access to detailed individual response time data. He pointed to other agencies publishing data publicly, saying the lack of shared data had eroded public trust. He also noted Chief Green had never come to their community to talk with them.
Greenbelt Councilmember Jenni Pompi spoke on behalf of the City of Greenbelt. She noted rapid development in the area had come without a corresponding increase in infrastructure. The community has historically invested in their local fire station and is now left with decreased services, said Pompi. She called for data transparency, regular community engagement, immediate plan adjustments and the creation of a task force. The reliance on volunteers is unsustainable and volunteers are reaching burnout, she warned.
Berwyn Heights Mayor Tiffany Papanikolas said their response times have increased by nearly two minutes, something that can be the difference between life and death. “We understand that eight minutes is acceptable as a standard to our fire chief, however, mediocrity should never be the goal; excellence should,” she said. Papanikolas also called for full transparency with clear and shared data, a taskforce and a more collaborative approach.
In addition to local leaders and representatives, numerous citizens spoke about their experiences and concerns. For more on the community response see the other story on this page.
