The Bunker Hill Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company is one of 3 volunteer corporations merged into the new Bunker Hill Fire Station in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

The Bunker Hill Fire Station was built to replace the old and outdated fire stations of the Cottage City/Colmar Manor VFC, the Mt. Rainier VFD (now known as the Bunker Hill VF&RC) and the Brentwood VFD..

The original intent when the 3 corporations moved into the Bunker Hill Fire station was to operate 3 separate fire stations running out of the same building, as impractical as it may sound. Currently they are being pushed… or should I say nudged, into forming one unit. The old station numbers, station 2 Cottage City, station 3 Bunker Hill and station 4 Brentwood are no longer recognized in the Prince Georges County Fire/EMS Department operations. All apparatus operating out of the Bunker Hill Fire Station were renumbered to reflect the Bunker Hill Fire Station number, Station 55.

The Chief officers from each corporation are no longer recognized in the chain of command of the Prince Georges County Fire/EMS Department. The Chief officers of each corporation have been assigned as Chief 55, (Chief 2) Chief 55A (Chief 3) and Chief 55B (Chief 4).

In order for each corporation to have an equal opportunity to have operational authority in the Bunker Hill Fire Station, the Chief officers will rotate each year in order to give each Chief the opportunity to run as Chief 55. Once the current year is up, Chief 55 will move to Chief 55B and the other 2 will move up.

The 3 corporations have finalized the formation of a new corporation, the Bunker Hill Volunteer Fire & Rescue Association, Inc. A nine (9) member Executive Board that is comprised of 3 members of each corporation govern this new Association. Each corporation will be able to maintain their current Operational and Administrative officers, but they have no Operational or Administrative authority in the Bunker Hill Fire Station.

Where each corporation had their own separate Apparatus Maintenance and Operational budgets they are now combined into one budget under Apparatus Maintenance and as of July 1, 2005 they will be combined into one Operational budget. The Operational budget is the budget where they can order station supplies such as cleaning supplies and office supplies, small tools and equipment through the Prince Georges County Logistics and Support Services office. And depending on what the Prince Georges County Fire Commission does, it’s possible they will be combined into one Station Management budget come July also. The Station Management budget is the actual money each individual volunteer station receives from Prince Georges County each year to operate. Currently each station receives $16,000.00 each year for their Station Management budget.

The building is still operating under a Temporary Use and Occupancy permit due to the numerous punch list items that have still yet to be resolved with the contractor. It has come to our attention recently though that the contractor has filed for Chapter 7 so the outlook of them fixing the numerous problems in the building is looking very slim.

Recently, the addition of a career Major was added to the Bunker Hill Fire Station. The function of the Major is to try to get the numerous punch list items taken care of (which we now know due to Chapter 7 filing will probably never be done by the contractor) and to oversee the operations of the Bunker Hill Fire Station. Also assigned to the Bunker Hill Fire Station is a career Battalion Chief.

Other career staff assigned to the Bunker Hill Fire Station are 1 officer and 3 ERT/Firefighters for suppression, 2 ERT/Firefighters for the BLS unit and 2 Medics for the Medic unit... per shift.  The career personnel work a 24 on 72  off shift with the exception of the Medics.

The Bunker Hill Fire Station currently houses 1 Ladder Truck, 3 Pumpers, 1 Mini Pumper, 1 Basic Life Support unit and 1 Advanced Life Support unit.