BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) — When minutes matter, Baltimore County firefighters warn the county can no longer guarantee a rapid response.
Firefighters say delays are growing, particularly when emergency medical services units are not immediately available.
“We have crews on scene sometimes waiting 20-25 minutes for a EMS unit to arrive,” Steve Redmer, a career firefighter and president of the union representing 1,000 county firefighters, said.
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Redmer said the Baltimore County Fire Department is facing its own crisis as it responds to emergencies across the county.
“We’re running a model that worked in 1970 when the population was significantly lower and the call volume was a third of what it is now,” he said.
Redmer pointed to staffing and equipment levels compared with decades ago. In 1991, Baltimore County had 692 thousand residents, and the fire department was staffed with 1,206 positions and had eight different ladder trucks. Today, 35 years later, the county’s population has grown by 150,000 additional residents, while the fire department staff has shrunk to 1,159 positions and it has one less ladder truck than it had 35 years ago.
“We have not expanded. We have not increased services to meet the demand over the decades,” Redmer said.
It’s just a lack of investment, honestly.”
Baltimore County has long relied on volunteer fire departments, including in places such as Cockeysville. But, Redmer said the number of volunteers is rapidly dwindling as the number of calls continues to rise.
“The volunteers have their districts that they cover and when they can’t respond the career units come from much farther away,” he said.
Concerns about staffing and demand were also raised in a commentary in The Baltimore Sun by county executive candidate Nick Stewart, who warned of shrinking fire staff and a call volume that has increased 500% in 30 years.
“We cannot continue operating a ‘duct tape department,’ where it is on our first responders to somehow get through the next day,” Stewart wrote.
Earlier this year, County Executive Kathy Klausmeier gave the department a $3.5 million boost, including in her proposed budget 12 new battalion chiefs to the department.
Redmer said progress has been made, but the department remains far behind.
“We’ve made strides, but we’re just so far behind because of the decades of stagnation, honestly,” he said. “We have to plan now and start now. We need significant investments now.”
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