Prince George's County Fire/EMS accepts the Senator Paul S. Sarbanes Fire Safety Leadership Award

(October 23, 2020) PGFD is one of only three fire departments in the nation who received the Senator Paul S. Sarbanes Fire Safety Leadership Award from the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF). Our Department was recognized for the implementation of our Rehab Unit program which is a large medical and rehabilitation apparatus that is dispatched to every single working fire incident in Prince George’s County. The unit is staffed 24-hours. It is designed to cycle through firefighters at a working fire incident to check their vital signs and monitor their exposure to carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide has been linked to sudden cardiac arrest in firefighters while serving in the line of duty. The vehicle is climate-controlled and offers a place for our firefighters to be medically assessed, recover, hydrate, and decontaminate their gear before returning to the fire fight. Since 2016, our Department has lost two firefighters to occupational cancer.

The rehab unit has proven itself to be a lifesaver. Since its launch in 2017, the rehab unit has identified more than thirty firefighters who required emergency transport from working incidents to area hospitals. In one case, as a result of a medical assessment on the rehab unit, our EMS staff recognized a firefighter who was in the midst of suffering a significant cardiac event. The member was transported to the hospital, underwent a cardiac procedure and was able to return to work months later.