Busiest Volunteers in U.S. Confined to Home Turf. Kentland Chief Out. Ambulance 339 Still Not In.
You can see 9News Now reporter Brittany Morehouse’s interviews with suspended Kentland Chief Tony Kelleher and PGFD’s Mark Brady, here.
As of 1900 hours Monday, the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department will not be straying far from home. Responses by the all-volunteer, Maryland fire company have been drastically limited by Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Chief Lawrence Sedgwick. Chief Sedgwick has given this order because of Kentland’s refusal to allow a basic-life-support ambulance to run out of Station 33.
While this battle has been going on for seven months, Monday’s developments are the most significant since Chief Michael Mattison was suspended on May 14th. Like Mattison, Kentland Acting Chief Tony Kelleher has been “removed from emergency operations” for refusing Chief Sedgwick’s order to accept Ambulance 339.
In addition, Sedgwick has restricted Kentland, one of the busiest fire companies in the United States, from responding to emergency calls that are outside its first-due area. The only exception is if a neighboring station is unavailable and Kentland’s engine company is the closest to the emergency.
Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Chief Spokesman Mark Brady said the response restrictions would be in effect until Kentland follows Chief Sedgwick’s order and allows Ambulance 339 to be placed in service. Chief Tony Kelleher said Monday evening, “The citizens will be the ones who suffer from this action”.
In a press release, Brady wrote, “Continuity of service to the citizens shall not be reduced, as the same amount of Fire/EMS units will be dispatched in accordance with standard procedures”.
Jim Collins, president of the Prince George’s County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, calls the response policy “totally ridiculous”. Collins said it will “jeopardize the safety of our citizens” by increasing response times when “time has to be on our side in order to make rescues”.
The press release says the new dispatch procedure for Station 33 is “to ensure personnel are available to respond to the more than 5100 Basic Life Support ambulance calls within their first due response area”.
Chief Kelleher said he was “blindsided” during a meeting with PGFD officials Monday afternoon. According to Kelleher, he was given “five minutes to make a decision” after being presented a new proposal from Chief Sedgwick’s staff.
All sides agree that the new proposal would have PGFD staff the ambulance, around-the-clock, with a dedicated career crew. A previous requirement that the volunteers take over the staffing by September 19th is no longer on the table.
According to Kelleher, this is an arrangement Kentland would likely accept, but claims PGFD officials refused to put it in writing or agree to a memorandum of understanding. Kelleher is concerned how long the county will actually provide the career staffing. When he asked that question, Kelleher said he was told “as long as it was financially affordable”.
Chief Kelleher said without more specific information, he couldn’t make a decision until first conferring with other Kentland officials. Kelleher said his request for another 24-hours was denied.
Kentland’s Station 33 is one of only three of Prince George’s County’s forty-six fire/EMS stations that does not have an ambulance. The station provides first-responder EMS with its fleet of fire trucks. It was in February that Chief Sedgwick first ordered the Kentland volunteers to staff the county-owned ambulance. Sedgwick has long contended that, with its large and active membership, Kentland should be able to staff the unit.
In May, Tony Kelleher was originally given one week to accept the ambulance after the suspension of Chief Michael Mattison. Kelleher was able to extend the deadline numerous times, as he offered his own plans to provide EMS service. On July 25th, Kentland went public with a proposal to start an EMS division and announced a nationwide recruiting effort for volunteers.
In an open letter that Kentland VFD sent to political leaders and the news media on August 10th, Kentland wrote, “After two and a half weeks of steady looking, only a small handful had come forward—once again leading the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department to believe that the burnout effect on volunteers would be tremendous”.
In that same letter Kentland said: “The Kentland Volunteer Fire Department has NEVER been against placing an EMS unit in service on the property of fire station 33. It has always been a matter of getting the Prince George’s County Fire Department to provide staffing for it, just as forty-two of the County’s forty-three Basic Life Support transport units receive every day.”
At the time, PGFD declined to respond to Kentland’s claim in that letter that the department was “attempting to crush the volunteers”.
If a career-staffed ambulance is assigned to Station 33, it will be the first time career firefighter/EMTs will run out of that fire company in more than a decade. In May of 1995, PGFD removed the career crew from Kentland and assigned it to stations that did not have as large a volunteer force as Kentland’s.
Tony Kelleher has not only been removed as chief, but like Michael Mattison, is operationally suspended. This means neither man can respond on fire or EMS calls in Prince George’s County. Kentland VFD has gone to court in an effort to address Mattison’s suspension. Hearings scheduled this summer have been postponed.
In its press release, PGFD said Chief Sedgwick has taken the actions against Kelleher and Mattison for “failure to comply with direct orders”.
Chief Sedgwick’s staff will now deal with the next Kentland official in the chain-of-command. The press release says, “The volunteer leadership at Kentland Station 33 will be granted a limited amount of time to comply with orders to place the ambulance into service or face additional sanctions.”
For a detailed history of the Kentland/PGFD issue, and of EMS in Prince George’s County, I suggest this paper by Michael J. Ward Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University.
