Baltimore County has approved a $9.7 million budget for its 29 volunteer, rescue and rehab companies, an increase of about $600,000 over last year, officials announced recently.
The fiscal year 2019 budget includes subsidies and reimbursements for gear, fuel, utilities, repairs, public education and other expenses, officials said.
The $9.7 million also includes financial incentives to be paid out over the course of the year to the 21 volunteer companies that provide medic service, officials said. The “attended status” program rewards companies that staff medic units during hours of high demand. In 2017, calls for emergency medical service accounted for 101,000 of the county’s fire departments’ 138,000 total calls for service.
The volunteer companies are independent corporations that receive the majority of their funding from Baltimore County. Officials said the volunteers work every day side by side with career fire fighters from the Baltimore County Fire Department’s 25 career stations.
The official announcement of the County’s contribution to the volunteers was made on Sept. 20 at the annual meeting of the Baltimore County Volunteer Firemen Association, held at Glyndon Volunteer Fire Company.
-Millaray Valenzuela