As rumors circulate about the possible return of Greenbelt’s career firefighters this summer, city officials continue to push for Prince George’s County to return their career firefighters, particularly following the reassignment of the Northern EMS Duty Officer (NEMSDO), who had been positioned at Greenbelt since the end of December 2024, and the proposed cuts in staffing for a medic unit from nearby College Park.
Career firefighters were first removed from Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights, Bowie–Belair and Bunker Hill on June 30, 2024 (see the July 4, 2024 News Review). The removal was anticipated to be a temporary setback; two years later, the city still remains in a legal battle with the county.
City Manager Josué Salmerón said that he has been advocating for Greenbelt amidst the negotiations. Salmerón said former Deputy Fire Chief James McClelland, before retiring, had expected career firefighters to return by February 2026 (see the November 13, 2025 issue). Since then, Salmerón said the language surrounding the return has become less decisive and the timeline less clear. There have been talks of the career firefighters returning this August, however he is not confident about the timeline and commitment.
“That’s not reassuring to me, because ‘looking at bringing back staffing’ is no promise and not a strong indication that they would bring staffing back,” he said, emphasizing that the county is “non-committal to a firm date.”
In addition to the postponement of bringing staff back, according to Salmerón, the Northern EMS Duty Officer assigned to Greenbelt was reassigned to Station 10 in Laurel over a month ago. The NEMSDO serves as the department’s on-duty commander, overseeing emergency responses, staffing and day-to-day EMS operations and had been stationed at Greenbelt after career firefighters were removed (see the December 11, 2024 and January 9, 2025 issues). In addition, on June 5, Fire Chief Thelmetria Michaelides announced a staffing reallocation that would impact Medic 812 operating out of College Park, which staffs an advanced life support ambulance. Under the proposal, that medic service would no longer have been available 24 hours a day every day of the week, instead becoming unavailable on weekdays after 3 p.m. and on weekends, under the proposal. College Park councilmembers raised serious concerns about the impact on safety in the area and on June 10, Streetcar Suburbs reported that the proposal to remove the paramedics had been put on hold.
Salmerón said he was concerned with the changes and proposal and noted how Greenbelt and neighboring towns have been hit the hardest throughout this process.
“Our area, meaning Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights, College Park and Beltsville, has endured the brunt of the reallocation of staff actions. We’re going on two years now, and we are getting frustrated because we are not seeing other stations getting cut,” he said. “The cuts have been isolated to this area.”
According to Salmerón, the city could not provide recent response time data to the News Review because it has not received a report from the fire chief since November 19, 2025. The News Review requested the response data that had previously been reported regularly to the city since the career firefighters’ removal but Michael Yourishin, press information officer for the county fire department said he was unable to provide the information, citing ongoing litigation. On July 2, the News Review submitted a public information act request for current response times in the Greenbelt area and the data for comparative time periods prior to the career firefighters’ removal.
The cities of Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights and College Park remain involved in an active lawsuit over the firefighters’ removal, though the case was postponed until September (see the January 22, 2026 issue). Since the case was filed, Berwyn Heights has had its firefighters returned. College Park firefighters joined the case because of the local impact on them, though they never lost their career firefighters. Salmerón acknowledged that one reason for the delay in returning all the career firefighters that were removed in 2024 is that the county fire department remains understaffed, awaiting more new trained recruits, so the solutions are limited. However, Salmerón said that Greenbelt officials are doing everything they can to return the career firefighters to the city.
“We are trying, we are, every chance we get to make a case with the county executive and fire chief,” he said.
Charlotte Ormond is a University of Maryland student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism interning with the Greenbelt News Review.
