ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — Anne Arundel County held a grand opening ceremony Thursday for a new fire station in Crownsville, giving community members an inside look at the facility and an opportunity to learn more about how the fire department is expanding.
Officials with the fire department say the Crownsville station has increased the response time and the capacity of fires the Anne Arundel County Fire Department is able to respond to. The station is the latest — and the first in the county to be funded by the county — built in recent years.
Anne Arundel County opens new Crownsville fire station
Captain Jenny MacAllair, director of communications for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, said the new location is already seeing a significant increase in activity.
"This new location covers quite a bit more territory so the call volume has already increased about 30 percent since they officially started responding out of here March 20."
The grand opening comes shortly after County Executive Stewart Pittman announced an increase in positions in his proposed county budget, which plans to give the fire department 21 new positions to help address staffing gaps at some stations across the county.
MacAllair said the department is currently fully staffed for its existing positions, but is working toward meeting national standards.
"We are fully staffed for as many positions that we have right now in the fire department so that is a great thing, we obviously want to get to a place where we are meeting that NFPA standard of four on a unit which is what the standard of covered document provided for all of us out here."
"The goal is not to get to a specific number, the goal is to make sure that our communities are safe and that were meeting the NFPA standard which is four on at least one large piece of apparatus at a time."
The firefighters union is calling for 350 more positions to be created for the county. MacAllair said the department is at the mercy of the county when it comes to adding new positions.
"We'll continue to build those stations up that need that, that extra person as we can as the budget allows and we need to do it in a fiscally responsible way as well."
Last week, the county also broke ground on the new county-owned Cape St. Claire Fire Department, Station 19. Officials say both stations are fully staffed at the capacity available for the county.
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