MEDIA CONTACT: Mark E. Brady, Chief Spokesperson, 240-508-7930
The Prince
George’s County Fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Department has been
notified by one of it’s volunteer corporations that the basic life support
transport unit (ambulance) will no longer be welcomed at their
station, and will be placed out of service within the next week.
The
Morningside Volunteer Fire Company, Inc., Prince George’s County Fire/EMS
Station 827, in a written notice from their lawyer, stated the ambulance at
their station would need to be removed or redeployed by the County on August 19, 2013.
Prince
George’s County Fire Chief Marc S. Bashoor sent a letter today to Morningside Volunteer Chief
Michael White ordering him to keep the ambulance in service. This action
came after attorneys representing the Morningside Volunteer Fire Department
notified the County in a letter (entire letter below) dated August 13, 2013, that “after careful
deliberations the membership of MVFD has voted and has decided to keep the date
of August 19, 2013 at 0700 by which Ambulance 827 will no longer be authorized
on it’s property and should be redeployed.” After reading the letter Fire
Chief Bashoor said, “Their decision will compromise the safety of our citizens
and residents, which I will not stand for it.”
This situation
is a result of “staffing” brought about by a recent change in the Collective
Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the County and the International Association
of Firefighters Local 1619. This new agreement affects staffing at
stations where only 2 career firefighter/medics are on duty. The
Morningside Station currently has 4 career staff on duty from 7:00 A.M. until
3:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. At all other times, 2 career
firefighter/medics remain on duty throughout the 24-hour shift. The new
CBA creates 2 options—either up staff the station with 4 career personnel
around the clock, or have the 2 firefighters removed from the 24-hour
shift. Removal of firefighters from the 24-hour shift will require
volunteers to staff the apparatus during nights, weekends and holidays.
There are 8 other stations affected by this agreement, with no other adverse
actions being taken at this time.
The
Morningside Volunteer Fire Company, Inc. has to date declined the 4-person crew
around the clock, which means the 2-person crew at night, weekends and holidays
would be eliminated, effective October 1, 2013 (date of the 3rd phase of
staffing implementation). The Morningside Station would then be required
to staff the ambulance and suppression units with volunteers. The
volunteer corporation has advised that volunteers will not staff the ambulance
at the Morningside station, and therefore the ambulance would be placed out of
service and removed from the station on August 19, 2013.
Fire Chief Bashoor had members of his command staff
meet with the leadership of the Morningside Station on several occasions, in an
attempt to work through this situation. There has been no progress or
change in Morningside’s stance. Fire Chief Bashoor has ordered the
Volunteer Chief, Michael White, to leave the ambulance in service, allowing it
to serve the community and be staffed by Volunteer and/or Career staffing.
In 2012, the
Morningside ambulance responded to 3,627 calls for service. This is the
10th busiest basic life support transport unit in the county. The loss of
this unit could create an estimated wait time of about 5 to 10 minutes for
another transport unit to respond to the scene of an incident in the
Morningside community.
Prince
George’s County is the largest and busiest combination (paid, volunteer,
civilian) Fire/EMS Departments in the Country. In 2012, the department
responded on 135, 383 calls for service. Of that figure, nearly 80
percent were EMS-related.
There are 45
Fire/EMS Stations located throughout Prince George’s County. Only 2 of
these stations operate without an EMS transport unit, and they are both
all-volunteer stations. There are 5 all-volunteer stations that continue
to staff and respond with ambulances. Most Fire/EMS stations have some
form of combined career and volunteer staffing.
There will be
consequences to any actions that attempt to place the ambulance out of service
at Morningside. The station’s Volunteer Fire Chief has been notified of
actions that will be taken if they move forward with plans to remove the
ambulance. Actions being considered include, but not limited to, demotion
of the volunteer chief and response of fire apparatus limited to areas where
they are considered first due.
Fire Chief
Marc S. Bashoor will continue to work with county and Morningside leaders to
resolve this matter. The goal is to prevent any adverse effect on the
Morningside community and surrounding areas.
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