Montgomery County volunteer fire department at risk of closing due to budget cuts
Hyattstown Volunteer Fire Department at risk of closing
A Montgomery County volunteer fire department is sounding the alarm, saying cuts to their station could cause them to shut down and leave the community vulnerable.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - A Montgomery County volunteer fire department is sounding the alarm, saying cuts to their station could cause them to shut down and leave the community vulnerable.
The backstory:
The Hyattstown Volunteer Fire Department has been around for nearly a hundred years. There are about 20 career firefighters who staff the station 24/7 and roughly 10 volunteers.
As part of recommendations from Montgomery County Council staff and MCFRS' Master Plan, there are plans to relocate the career firefighters and leave the Hyattstown station volunteer-only, which would be unprecedented in Montgomery County.
"It would be a savings of almost $1 million a year, but for that cost, it is leaving upper Montgomery County community vulnerable," said Eric N. Bernard, executive director of the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. "Never in Montgomery County have we had a station completely de-staffed of career firefighters."
Hyattstown Chief Jeff Gross has been at the station for 32 years.
"It is exasperating to me, it just wears me down and a little demoralizing sometimes," Gross said. "In the last 15, 20 years, this is about the sixth or seventh episode of them trying to remove funding from our staff here and each time we fight it, we manage to overcome it when the public comes out and voices their opinions about it."
Gross said the 10 volunteers primarily have EMS training, and do not have the qualifications to operate the big specialized tanker the career firefighters can run.
It has an extrication unit for accidents on nearby 270 and can carry more water, since the area around the station does not have fire hydrants.
Dig deeper:
The entire county runs on a hybrid system with about 1,0000 volunteer firefighters working side by side with roughly 1,200 career firefighters, Bernard explained.
Montgomery County Fire officials said the move is best for the county as a whole.
They also point to the opening of a new station in nearby Clarksburg — a nearly $40-million investment — as one of the reasons to reallocate Hyattstown's resources.
"This station has served the community well for decades," said Pete Piringer, spokesperson for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.
"But the move will enhance services where they are needed. And as I said there's not that many calls in that area, fire calls or emergency medical calls, and we think the opening of this station, this investment in greater Hyattstown-Clarksburg area, will be adequate."
Bernard said the volunteer firefighters association disagrees and opposes the plan.
"While they don't run as many calls as we do in Silver Spring or Bethesda, the over 680 calls a year they do run are very important for those people and they should have a response in five minutes and not 10 minutes," Bernard said.
Big picture view:
For reference, stations in Gaithersburg, Rockville and Silver Spring run more than 10,000 calls a year. To be clear, there are no cuts to MCFRS' overall budget. In fact, there's a six percent increase for fiscal year 2026.
Montgomery County Council is reviewing the MCFRS budget at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
After Wednesday's full Council budget review with Chief Corey Smedley, the Council is scheduled to make a recommendation on the issue. Straw votes on the entire budget will be May 15 with a final budget vote on May 22.
The changes in Hyattstown would go into effect July 1 if it's approved.