ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The ambulances at the Annapolis Fire Department have logged a lot of miles.
"That's 150,000 hard miles on these things. And they don't last forever," said Joe Pilat, president of Annapolis Professional Firefighters Local 1926.
But they're still ready to be steered toward any emergency, 24/7. Fully staffing them is another story.
Annapolis firefighters union raises concerns about staffing shortages
"Currently, we don't meet the NFPA standards for the amount of staffing on our suppression equipment like the ladder truck and the fire engine, and then we have an overwhelming need for another medic unit to go in service," Pilat told WMAR-2 News in an interview Friday. "We have the physical units to make it happen. We don't have the people to make it happen."
The fire union has been making that message clear to city officials for years.
The International Association of Firefighters conducted a staffing study last year, that found the department consistently falls short of industry standards when it comes to fully staffing its units.
"It's rock solid information. It comes straight from our CAD dispatching system, so you can't argue the numbers. You can't argue what the standards are. It's there, black and white, plain as day," Pilat said.
Pilat says the department often has to rely on outside resources - like the Anne Arundel County Fire Department or the Naval Academy - when all of the city's medic units are out on calls. He says that extends the wait time for patients needing an ambulance.
"We're always there for 'em, it's just a matter of your time waiting for an ambulance to take you to the hospital, and that's affected by not having a 5th medic unit," Pilat said.
The department's call volume continues to rise. Over the last five years, calls increased every year, with a slight dip in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2019, the department took more than 12,000 calls and that number increased by more than 1,000 in 2024. The department has call volume posted for the first six months of this year and its on pace to match or exceed last year's total.
Acting City Manager Jacqueline Guild tells WMAR-2 News:
“The City of Annapolis Fire Department continues to maintain an ISO Class 1 rating, the highest possible for fire protection.
Over the past five years, the Fire Department budget has increased to allow for an increased daily staffing level. In Fiscal Year 2026, the Fire Department received a funding enhancement of around $2.2 million. We continue to meet all our response requirements and mutual aid obligations and City residents are never without Fire and Emergency Medical Services.
We recognize that the fire union has advocated for additional staffing resources, but budget decisions must balance many critical needs across all City departments. We remain open to continued discussions with the Fire Department and Union leadership to collaboratively address issues and ensure we maintain our excellent record for quality emergency response.”
An In Focus look at incident calls in Annapolis for the last five years
Pilat counters, "Their $2.2 million that they're claiming as enhancements to our budget is contractual obligations for salaries and benefits and the rest is cost of doing business. There was no actual enhancement to our budget. It was literally the cost of doing business."
For example, he said part of that money goes toward basic needs like replacing cardiac monitors, which he says are so old that the vendors are no longer able to service them.
"We can't bring in the almost $4 million in EMS billing money if we don't have cardiac monitors. So, the money that they like to take from us, they don't give back to us. It's not reinvested in the department," he said.
In good news for the department, the state is helping fund a new internship program to potentially recruit the next generation of Annapolis firefighters.
"We are very ecstatic to see the numbers of people interested in this internship because I believe it's the only one in the state, so it's very exciting for us," Annapolis Fire Department Captain Bud Zapata told WMAR-2 News.
10 people between the ages of 18 and 24 will complete a 9-month training program and be ready to put on a uniform anywhere in Maryland.
Pilat hopes by then the city will put enough money in the budget for the department to hire those 10 new firefighters: "We have 10 people that are gonna be trained here right here in town, hopefully they're city residents as well that have buy-in to the city, are we just gonna let them walk out the door and go to Prince George's County or Anne-Arundel County, or are we gonna keep them right here? That's, that's a huge step in the right direction and it's something that they can plan for for next year."
Pilat says the union has yet to be approached by the city to have a conversation.
"We understand that this is not something that can change tomorrow," he told WMAR-2 News. We're not gonna hire 10 people tomorrow and have this unit back in service right away. It's gonna take time and we understand that and we're OK with that, but we have no plan, we have no direction as far as that goes to to actually accommodate for this need."
