Beginning no later than September 30, Greenbelt fire station will gain daytime career staffing but lose its 24/7 Advanced Life Support (ALS) unit. For the past two years, the station has been staffed with an around-the-clock paramedic unit and a second ambulance for peak hours from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Soon there will be no around-the-clock paramedic unit and no Emergency Medical Services (EMS) coverage at the station at all after 3 p.m. or on weekends. In addition, College Park will see the relocation of the ALS unit that has long been stationed there. These changes come as average response times for ALS calls were slower for five of the first six months of the year than in the same months two years earlier, when career firefighters were still stationed in Greenbelt. Response times for Basic Life Support (BLS) calls were also slower in most months.
The move to have career staff from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Greenbelt may ameliorate two needs for the county fire department: the legal challenge to the removal of career staffing – a hearing for which is scheduled for this Thursday, September 10 – and a union grievance over the partial staffing model. In an August 14 memo to fire department personnel, Fire Chief Thelmetria Michaelides wrote that the department needed to modify its current staffing configuration and redeploy resources to be consistent with their collective bargaining agreement. She said that the department currently has 84 recruits in the academy and will welcome another class of recruits in October.
Staffing Plan
Under the new staffing plan Greenbelt will receive six career personnel assigned Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., while its ALS ambulance unit will be relocated to Calverton.
Meanwhile, the nearby College Park fire station will continue to operate with six career personnel Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., but their ALS unit will be relocated to Bunker Hill, similarly leaving them without EMS services after 3 p.m.
Speaking with the News Review on Tuesday, City Manager Josué Salmerón expressed concern that most area calls are for EMS services rather than fire suppression and no EMS response will be available from Greenbelt, College Park or Beltsville during weekends or after 3 p.m. during the week. “I’d rather have 24/7 coverage,” he said.
Michaelides said in her memo that the redeployed ambulance units will operate as “battalion-based resources” and “although these units will have designated base stations” their deployment won’t be limited to the area of those stations, instead responding to county-wide coverage needs.
City Managers Respond
In the response to the staffing changes the managers from the Four Cities Coalition of Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights, College Park and New Carrollton sent a joint memo to Michaelides expressing their concerns about the impact on locally-based EMS and ALS resources. Of particular concern was the relocation of the 24/7 ALS units from Greenbelt and College Park.
“Our region has experienced significant instability in Fire/EMS staffing and deployment over the past several years, including the removal and restoration of career staffing and repeated changes to EMS and ALS resources. It is important that the current changes provide a stable and sustainable level of service rather than another redistribution of resources,” said the joint memo.
Managers from the four cities requested Greenbelt’s paramedic ambulance be relocated closer, in West Lanham Hills, if it must move, and also sought clarification regarding the six career personnel being assigned, including which apparatus they will staff, what coverage will be available after 3 p.m. and on weekends and if a 24-hour paramedic ambulance could remain permanently based in Greenbelt. “We continue to believe 24/7 career staffing at Station 835 is the appropriate long-term solution,” they stated.
They also requested the long-standing 24/7 ALS resource remain at College Park, “as it has for decades,” and if it must move, requested it be routinely deployed in the College Park area when available.
In addition, the managers expressed concern about the potential impact of the changes on the volunteer BLS ambulances in College Park and Berwyn Heights, asking if the current call volume and utilization had been studied to predict any likely increase in demand on the volunteer resources.
The city managers requested monitoring and sharing of monthly call volume, unit utilization and response data for the units after changes are implemented.
Response Time Data
Data obtained via a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request by the Greenbelt News Review was received shortly before time of press on Tuesday (68 days after the MPIA was submitted – 38 days later than the response was due). Initial review shows an increase in response time for the Greenbelt area for every category with comparable data in June 2026 (the most recent month shared) compared to June 2024 and an increase in all but one category (rescue) for May 2026 compared to May 2024.
In June, both ALS and BLS average response times were above the eight-minute threshold PGFD said they would aim to maintain at the removal of the career firefighters, averaging 8:39 and 9:57 respectively, both of which had been under eight minutes on average in June 2024. In fact, average BLS response times were over eight minutes every month this year, the longest being 11:11 in January. Average ALS response times were above eight minutes in all months except March (6:37) and May (7:57).
Look for our reporting on the response time data in an upcoming article as well as news of the court case over the firefighters removal, which is set to be heard in Annapolis on Thursday, September 10. Speaking to the News Review on Tuesday, Salmerón did not appear overly optimistic as he, along with leaders from Berwyn Heights and College Park, prepared to present the cities’ case against County Executive Aisha Braveboy’s legal team.