On January 3, Prince George’s County Fire Chief Tiffany Green wrote to Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan to provide updates on what she referred to as the “staffing reallocation plan.” Since the removal of career firefighters on June 30, the staffing has previously been referred to as a “temporary staffing reallocation” and “summer staffing plan.” Green outlined changes in resources through which, perhaps most significantly, Greenbelt gained a full-time paramedic ambulance last month (see the December 12 issue), She also shared data on call times and who is responding to fire and emergency medical services (EMS) calls in the Greenbelt area. One change that comes to light through the data is that while Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department and EMS used to be the most frequent responder for what is Greenbelt Station’s “First Due Area,” responding to 38.3 percent of incidents, since the removal of career staff the station is now able to respond to only 2.7 percent of Greenbelt area calls. The Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Department (PGFD) remains critically short-staffed, wrote Green, but is identifying and addressing resource gaps.
Greenbelt Resources
Green notes that beginning December 29, the Northern EMS Duty Officer is located at Greenbelt station. Additionally, at Greenbelt station, Paramedic Ambulance 858 is staffed 24/7 with overtime personnel and Ambulance 899 is staffed with overtime personnel from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. (See article on page 8 for more).
Berwyn Heights Resources
Beginning December 18, 2024, a surge engine was also placed at the Berwyn Heights station on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, staffed with overtime personnel for 12 hours daily, wrote Green. PGFD began deploying fire suppression resources to Berwyn Heights on an as-needed basis on October 13, 2024. “Between Sunday, October 13, 2024, through December 28, 2024, the Berwyn Heights Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad, Inc., has requested county fire suppression crews a total of 31 times,” stated Green.
Response Times
According to Green’s letter, for the period between June 30 and December 28, the average response time in Greenbelt for all call types is 5 minutes 57 seconds. Advanced Life Support response time during that period has increased from 6 minutes 18 seconds in 2023 (443 incident responses) to 7 minutes 12 seconds (465 responses). Basic Life Support response times, according to Green, have very slightly decreased from an average of 8 minutes 45 seconds during that period in 2023 (413 incident responses) to an average of 8 minutes 41 seconds (385 incident responses). Average response times for fire calls according to Green have decreased from 6 minutes 13 seconds (156 responses) to 4 minutes and 5 seconds (257 responses) and non-emergency calls have decreased from 7 minutes (93 responses) to 6 minutes 30 seconds (73 responses) according to the letter. Finally, response times to rescue calls increased from an average of 3 minutes 37 seconds (across 868 responses) to 4 minutes 36 seconds (across 875 incident responses). These response times are calculated from the time of dispatch, which is when an engine accepts the call, not the time of a 911 call.
Who Responds
Green also provided data showing who responded to calls for fire and emergency services in Greenbelt’s area. In 2023, for the period of June 30 to December 28, Greenbelt’s fire department responded to 788 calls which amounted to 38.3 percent of calls. In 2024, following the removal of the career firefighters, from June 30 to December 28, Greenbelt’s station responded to just 2.7 percent of the area’s calls, for a total of 58. Thus in 2023, Greenbelt was providing the majority of responses by far and Berwyn Heights was the second most frequent responder, taking 19.9 percent of calls, or 409 during that six-month period. In the same period for 2024 Berwyn Heights became the greatest responder to Greenbelt’s incidents, responding 569 times, which made up 26.2 percent of calls. Perhaps most surprisingly, National Harbor Station was among the top five responders to Greenbelt since June 30, 2024, though it responded to no Greenbelt calls in the same 2023 period. The most frequent responders since the staffing reallocation are: Berwyn Heights (26.2 percent), West Lanham Hills Volunteer Fire Department (18.3 percent), College Park Volunteer Fire Department (8.5 percent), Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department (8.4 percent) and National Harbor Station (7.9 percent).