BOWIE, Md. – On Friday, January 26th, Prince George’s County Fire/EMS continued a long trend of increased call volume, which significantly taxed response resources. By 5:30 PM Engine 819 – Bowie Old Town and Engine 843 – Pointer Ridge were placed out of service to move their staffing to ambulances, leaving one engine company in Bowie for fire and EMS response.
While these Bowie units were out of service, a house fire was dispatched just after 9 PM in the 14600 block of London Lane in Bowie. Upon arrival Engine 816 – Northview discovered a basement on fire in the home and reports of people still in the structure. Because of the two other Bowie engines being out of service, Fire Fighters were forced to operate alone for an extended period of time, waiting for additional resources to arrive. Thankfully our firefighters were able to extinguish the fire without injury or loss of life for themselves or the residents.
Local 1619 wants to commend the hard work and dedication of our members in the face of these challenging conditions. Their daily professionalism was on display yesterday. The dedication of the Fire Fighters and Paramedics of Prince George’s County ensured a positive outcome on 665 calls and can not be understated.
This fire highlights a disturbing trend of increased call volume without the increased investment into the safe staffing of the fire/EMS system. Since 2020 Prince George’s County has seen a 15% increase in call volume. Last year the Fire/EMS department ran 169,560 calls for service, up from 147,634 just three years prior. As the 16th busiest fire department in the nation, Prince George’s County must provide enough Fire Fighters to account for the significant call volume increase so our Fire Fighters are never left alone.
For years Local 1619 has been sounding the alarm to hire more Fire Fighters to make up for deficiencies in staffing of fire houses. Last night was just another example of the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department being under resourced and under staffed. Prince George’s County must hire 232 Fire Fighters to fix this problem. Without this commitment, our Fire Fighters and the residents of Prince George’s County will be left wondering when help is going to arrive when they call 9-1-1.