After struggling with a dwindling budget and resources, the Prince George’s County Fire Department received a grant that will allow it to hire more firefighters to keep the area safer.
The $2.6 million federal grant from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant program provides direct funding to increase the number of trained firefighters available. The department will hire 18 more full-time firefighters to better serve the community.
The new firefighters will most likely be assigned to the District Heights, Silver Hill and Largo-Kettering stations, which currently have the greatest need for additional staffing, fire department spokesman Mark Brady said.
“The grant will help us improve service delivery, and will increase the safety of our first responders by ensuring adequate staffing levels,” said Prince George’s County Fire Chief Marc S. Bashoor.
Because the department has been understaffed, firefighters have sustained injuries after being overworked, Brady said. The grant is the second one the department has received in the last two years and is needed to provide crucial services to county residents, he added.
Firefighter George Moore, who has been a part of the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department since 1961, said the money is sorely needed, as he has felt the strain of being understaffed.
“They’re going out a lot of times undermanned,” Moore said. “During the day, we have four paid firefighters and we should have five.”
Several stations don’t have enough staff members to respond in sufficient numbers if overlapping emergencies occurred, Brady said. The department will have 88 additional firefighters next year; it was already planning to add 70 more before the grant.
State Democratic leaders, including Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. Donna Edwards and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, advocated for the grant.
“First responders put their lives on the line every day to protect our families and our homes, and we owe it to them to provide all the resources necessary to do their jobs,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
The grant pays for all or part of the 18 firefighters’ salaries for the first five years, after which the county will have to pay their full salaries. Until then, county officials expect the new hires to save the department money, because they won’t have to pay staff members overtime and will hopefully have fewer expenses from injuries.
The College Park, Hyattsville and Greenbelt stations tend to be heavily staffed by volunteers, but may still receive additional firefighters if they need them, Brady said.
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