PGFD Sued Over Staffing
The Burger King of Fire Departments
Prince George’s County, Maryland, is a Washington, D.C., suburb with a population of around one million. The median population density in the County is 4,200 per square mile with some areas nearly doubling that.
It has a sordid history as a fire and rescue department (PGFD) where on-scene fights between responding fire crews both make the news and recall the glory days of plug-uglies, firefighting’s original thugs and bullies.
The County faces a severe deficit of paid firefighters and Fire Chief Tiffany Green is reallocating staff to cover the most severe shortages. Several municipalities including Greenbelt, College Park and Berwyn Heights are suing the County over the move.
There are 45 stations with 981 career members.
PGFD is a “combination” department, a mix of paid personnel and volunteers often working in stations that are owned by volunteer corporations. These volunteer corporations have long held significant political power in the County effectively dictating how fire/rescue protection is provided. As a result, the department has operated more like a system of Burger King franchises where each organization has it their way:
Twenty-two (22) volunteer corporations that are staffed 24/7 with Career Staffing providing 100% primary service.
Nine (9) 100% volunteer Fire/EMS Stations. Only five (5) are active in providing service at least 75% of the time.
Six (6) day work stations (7a-3p M-F staffed by career staff). Volunteer staffed primarily between 3p-7a and during weekends and holidays.
One needn’t read much between the lines to discern an anemic volunteer component.
That last part, “day work stations” is the sure indicator of a fire department anchored in the past. A day work station is a part-time fire department where the crew clocks out and goes home mid-day, a vestige of bygone times when the men folk, home from work, would man the rigs.
And when you see “day work station” it also means the volunteer organizations remain in control of the local governing body, dictating operational staffing to suit their desires rather than the public need.
WTOP reports, “The new budget, which goes into effect on Monday, allows the county to hire another 150 firefighters, the most ever. A new firefighter class also entered training earlier this month, and more than 30 new firefighters are set to finish training in the coming weeks.”
Local 1619, the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) unit in the County, which represents career personnel, is not quoted in the story. An IAFF local union not quoted in a story about staff shortages sticks out like a sore thumb. Have they no position on the matter?
At the end of the upcoming fiscal year the department will have somewhere around 1,160 career personnel.
Literally across the Potomac river from Prince George’s County is Fairfax County, Virginia, a county of the same size and population and also with a combination department. To PGFD’s 981 career personnel, Fairfax has 1,400 suggesting that the PGFD shortage is dire and will remain so.
But don’t blame Chief Green, she is playing the hand she was dealt within the constraints imposed by the political system in the County. Freed from those constraints she could allocate personnel resources based on required minimum crew size, call volume and risk management. It’s safe to say there is little chance of currently staffing enough stations to provide EMS and fire services in Prince George’s County given the numbers.
(A “back-of-the-envelope” calculation suggests that Chief Green could fully staff around 23 stations if a relief pool and administration were accounted for — that’s just 50% of the current need.)
A final note--just how does a fire department get to this point in 2024?
Politics, including labor politics, is one area to consider. Happy politicians can make for poor EMS and fire departments. But they can make for happy firefighters, too.
In the PGFD, a three-year firefighter can make up to $144K annually without overtime. That same firefighter in Fairfax would receive around $72K.
Pay in the PGFD is negotiated, as it should be. Was station staffing or minimum crew size ever pushed down the negotiation priority list in favor of higher pay? (Don’t hire more firefighters — just pay us more! Everyone including the volunteers will be happy.)
One other point — how many of the current PGFD “volunteers” are off-duty career firefighters from other jurisdictions such as D.C. and Fairfax? It’s a labor travesty that fellow union members share in the mess in PG.
Ironically, International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Vice President Andrew Pantelis, who helps guide the 300,000 member union and who represents Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia and D.C. is a leader in the PGFD.
All of this points to the fact that at some point (far in the mirror in Prince George’s) fire/rescue departments need to be staffed fully by a core of professionals where volunteers play a strictly supplementary role. Otherwise, the public pays the price, sometimes with their lives.
