Commentary: Md. Fire Co. Sues County in Ambulance Dispute

The Kentland Volunteer Fire Department says it has filed suit against Prince George's County. This comes just hours after County Fire Chief Lawrence Sedgwick removed Kentland Chief Michael Mattison from the chain of command.

Kentland had been ordered by Chief Sedgwick to begin providing ambulance service by today. In a statement on kentland33.com, Kentland VFD maintains it doesn't have the space and manpower to run the ambulance. The all-volunteer company says an ambulance, "amounts to a hospital shuttle service." The statement says, "Such transports often take several hours due to paperwork and are currently handled by other area firehouses, which have full-time career staffing."

The Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department removed career staffing at Kentland in 1995. Kentland's area has the second highest number of EMS runs in Prince George's County.

Kentland President, Sheila Mann, said in the statement, "Adding an ambulance to Station 33 without the additional career staff to operate it, and without the additional space in our facility, would put the excellent service currently provided by our department at risk."

Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department spokesman Mark Brady told 9News Now on Sunday that Chief Sedgwick is determined that every fire station in the County will provide ambulance service. Ambulances were recently added at the Laurel and Morningside stations. Brady says besides Kentland, stations at West Lanham Hills and Ritchie are without ambulances. According to Brady, Chief Sedgwick will soon order those stations to begin providing ambulance service.

Chief Sedgwick is taking disciplinary action against Chief Mattison for failing to obey his order to start running Ambulance 339 by today. Kentland says the decision not to run the ambulance came from a membership vote and not Chief Mattison. Chief Sedgwick has now given Kentland's Deputy Chief one week to put the ambulance in service or face similar action.

The statement quotes Cary Hansel, one of Kentland's attorneys, as saying, "the department has a strong legal position and looks forward to presenting this case in court."

Since 1972 Dave Statter has covered the news. A good deal of Dave's reporting has focused on how fire and emergency medical services are delivered in and around Washington and Baltimore. Along the way, Dave was also a volunteer firefighter, an emergency dispatcher and a cardiac rescue technician.