STATter 911

(UPDATED at 7:40 p.m. with Kelleher conversation)

Word from Prince George's County Fire/EMS Chief Spokesman Mark Brady that Acting Kentland Chief Tony Kelleher has been stripped of his operational authority. Brady says PGFD officials met with Chief Kelleher this afternoon and offered to begin running a career-staffed ambulance out of Station 33 beginning Tuesday morning. Brady says the county backed off of a hard deadline for the ambulance to be staffed by volunteers.

According to Brady, Chief Kelleher said he did not have the authority to give them an answer. That's when action was taken against Kelleher and Kentland VFD. Brady says they will now make the same offer to the next person in Kentland's chain of command.

Most interesting are the new dispatching procedures that Brady says are in effect as of 1900 hours. According to Brady, Kentland will only make first-due responses. This means it can dump the house in its first due area. Outside of the first-due area, Kentland VFD will not be dispatched unless they are the closest fire station to the call (for example, a neighboring fire station was already on a call).

In a phone conversation, Tony Kelleher tells STATter 911 he was "blindsided" by PGFD officials. Kelleher says that was given 5 minutes to make a decision on an arrangement that had not previously been presented. According to Kelleher, while the county offered a dedicated career crew around-the-clock, they would not put the details in writing or agree to a memorandum of understanding.

Kelleher says he was only told the career staffing would be available as long as it was "financially affordable". Kelleher says he asked for 24-hours to confer with Kentland officials about this new information. That request was denied.

Tony Kelleher says Kentland VFD would likely agree to the county's arrangement, and allow Ambulance 339 to be put in-service, if the specific details were made clear.

Kelleher believes the citizens will suffer when Prince George's County bypasses fully-staffed fire trucks and sends units to emergency scenes that are coming from a further distance.

Here is a press release from PGFD:

Fire Chief Compelled To Address
Non-Compliant Volunteer Fire Department

Prince George ’s County Fire Chief Lawrence H. Sedgwick, Jr. has been compelled to address the issue of the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department, Station 33, and their failure to comply with direct orders. In February, 2007, Fire Chief Sedgwick ordered the Kentland Fire Station 33 to place a County owned and supplied, basic life support (BLS), transport unit (ambulance) into service, to be housed and staffed by the existing volunteer membership who currently respond to EMS calls on pieces of fire apparatus. Since that time, the volunteer chief was removed from emergency operations for failure to obey direct orders and other disciplinary actions not germane to this issue. The current volunteer chief has offered several alternate plans at the direction of his membership, however, none have met the initial orders of the Fire Chief.

On Monday, August 20, 2007, The Fire/EMS Department advised the Kentland volunteer leadership that eight career Firefighters/Paramedics would be made available to staff the ambulance 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. The County owned and staffed ambulance would be housed and respond out of Kentland Station 33. Kentland volunteer leadership did not accept this proposal. While this plan is being considered by the Kentland membership, appropriate action has been directed to be taken. As a result of failing to meet the current deadline, Fire Chief Sedgwick has directed the Deputy Fire Chief of Emergency Operations, Lieutenant Colonel Robert McCoy, to implement the following actions for Kentland’s non-compliance.

• The current volunteer chief shall be immediately removed from emergency operations.
  
  The Fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Department will now confer with the next volunteer chief in the chain-of-command.
  
  The Fire/EMS Department will reduce the amount of mutual aid responses of the Kentland Fire Department to ensure personnel are available to respond to the more than 5100 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance calls within their first due response area. The Fire/EMS Department will evaluate Kentland’s ability to maintain adequate response to all calls in their first due prior to any adjustments. 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.
  
  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.

# posted by Dave Statter @ 7:40 PM