Branchville Fire Department in College Park had 80 members in 2013. Now it has 15.

While the College Park City Council awarded each of the city’s fire departments a $20,000 grant to purchase new equipment Tuesday, one department is facing a severe staff shortage since it eliminated career firefighters in 2013, according to the department chief and city officials.

Branchville Volunteer Fire Department serves half of College Park, including College Park Woods, some homes on Greenbelt Road and University of Maryland residence halls located on University Boulevard.

Last month, the fire department was out of service for 36 hours because nobody was around to staff the station, Chief Richard Leizear said at the College Park City Council’s Oct. 18 work session. In 2016 alone, the department has lost nine volunteers, he added.

“Right now, we’re stripped so thin, I came down here tonight to meet with you all, I had to put the company out of service,” Leizear said. “There’s nobody there right now to drive.”

The city council approved a letter to Prince George’s County Fire Department Chief Marc Bashoor at the Oct. 25 meeting to express concerns about the shortage of volunteers at the station and to request restoration of career staff at the station.

Before full-time firefighters left three years ago, Branchville Fire Department had 80 members.

Now, the station is down to 15 members — and only five or six of them actually live in College Park. The rest come from West Virginia or southern Maryland, Leizear said.

If an emergency were to be called in from one of these areas during a time when no one was at the Branchville station, the 911 call would be dispatched to a neighboring fire department, which would increase emergency response time.

“Sometimes that means a matter of just a couple of minutes, but if it were me, I would prefer to have an ambulance a couple minutes sooner rather than later,” said Robert Ryan, College Park director of public services, at the council’s Oct. 25 meeting.

Leizear said he has been asking Prince George’s County Fire Department for data and statistics on how Branchville’s service has been affected since career firefighters were cut.

Several city council members have expressed concern for the safety and well-being of the community and its residents if the department is severely understaffed.

“Many of us live in north College Park and west College Park and are directly affected by this,” said District 4 Councilwoman Mary Cook at the Oct. 18 council work session.

The city council had also expressed some concern when career staff were initially eliminated, according to the letter the council sent to the Prince George’s County Fire Department.

The council is also worried that with the growth of the city’s aging in place population, the demand for emergency medical services will increase.