Baltimore may have experienced the biggest firefighter reduction of any metro-sized fire department, losing about 60% of its on-duty fire suppression staffing since 1981. This is due to the shrinkage of the city population from its 1950 peak, a reduction in fire incidents, an explosion of EMS workload, and the impact of fire department overtime. There have been no firefighter layoffs, but the number of authorized (funded) positions have shrunk.
The mayor and city council established the City of Baltimore Fire Department in 1858. By 1970, the city had 905,787 residents and the department staffed:
- 58 Engine companies
- 5 Hose companies
- 20 Truck companies
- 2 Tower companies
- 12 ambulances (Frederick, 2009)
The 1992 Harvard Kennedy School case study on Baltimore fire station closings under Mayor Schmoke describes the budget impact of having too many fire stations, with about 10 blocks between some stations (Simon, 1992). This reflected 19th-century fire station deployment. The fire horses could sustain a full gallop for about a mile – 10 to 20 city blocks (Merwin, 1890; Horse Tales, 2015).
Fire Station Consolidations During Downtown Redevelopment
Fire companies moved from 19th-century fire stations into new facilities, moves linked with other urban development. For example, both Paca Street houses (Truck 2 / Water Tower 1, and Rescue 1 / Engine 1), the Gay Street house (Engine 32, Truck 1), and the Saratoga Street house (Engine 23) all closed in 1973 (Legeros, 2013).
The Steadman “Super Station” opened in 1973 and housed Engine Companies 15, 23 & 27; Truck Company 2; Water Tower Company 1; Rescue Company 1; Airflex 1; Battalion Chief 5; Box 414 Coffee Wagon; and Ambulance 1 (bcfdl734, 2020).
The Steadman fire station was built as the downtown waterfront area was moving from an industrial seaport into the Inner Harbor complex that included a convention center (1979), stadiums, hotels, offices, restaurants, retail, entertainment, and upscale residences. I was a Sackroom live-in at the College Park fire station in the 1970s while a fire protection engineering student at the University of Maryland. We would buff multiple-alarm overnight warehouse fires at the Inner Harbor.1
Today, Steadman staffs Engine 23, Rescue 1, Medic 1, Ambulance 23, EMS 6, Battalion 6, Airflex 1, HazMat 1, and special operations support vehicles (Fendon, 2026).
There has been a steady erosion of city residents since 1950, with the 2025 population estimated at 569,997, or 60% of the 1950 census. This U.S. Census Bureau Resident Population in Baltimore City, MD, chart documents the decline; the gray bars identify recessions:
Incomplete roster of Baltimore fire company closures 1981 – 2026
It is difficult to produce an accurate and complete account of changes in municipal fire department staffing. Local news reports are incomplete. Published annual budget documents are obscure by design.
This is what I have assembled for Baltimore City:
1981: Engine 38
1980s: Engine 22
1986: Aerial Tower Consolidations: Combining an engine and truck company crew onto a Sutphen aerial tower quint. Staffing went from 8 to 6, eliminating a fire officer and chauffeur position. Net loss of five engine companies.
1988: Engine 37
1990: Engine company staffing reduced from four to three (Justia, 1992). The city could not hire 137 additional firefighters to reduce the workweek from 47 hours per week to 44.4/44.8 hours per week. Instead, they reduced engine company staffing. City claimed overtime costs were approaching $1 million.
1991: Engine 7 and Marine Service: Fireboat 1, Engine 49, Engine 48 (Harvard case study)
1995: Engine 32, Engine 34, Engine 38, Truck 4
1997: Engine 10, Truck 28, Aerial Tower 111 (Baltimore Fire Officers IAFF Local 964, 2023)
2000: Mayor Martin O’Malley’s first city budget includes a proposal to close 7 fire companies. The Greater Baltimore Committee and the President’s Roundtable developed the plan for the mayor.
The fire company EMS assist runs identified in the 1999 study were mostly as the EMS first responder because an ambulance was farther away or no ambulances were immediately available (staff, 2000a).
On May 10, 2000, the city started the process to close seven fire companies. Of the 140 firefighter positions affected, 100 will be moved to other fire companies to save $4 to $5 million in overtime, and 40 will staff 4 to 6 additional ambulances.
2000: Engine 33, Engine 9, Engine 19, Engine 24, Truck 5, Aerial Tower 114
2001: Engine 3, Engine 19, Engine 24, Truck 9, Truck 13
2002: Aerial Tower 124, Aerial Tower 128, Battalion 7, Battalion 8. Aerial Tower 102, after a steady reduction of assigned staffing from 6 to 4, restored to Truck 2. Engine 28 is not restaffed.
2005: After lengthy labor and legal negotiations – interrupted by a July 2001 CSX chemical train derailment/fire and major water main break in the Howard Street tunnel that closed downtown for three days and dumped 60 million gallons of water (Scott, 2004) – the O’Malley reconfigured Baltimore Fire Department in 2005 was comprised of:
- 32 Engine Companies – closed 4 companies
- 4 Squad Companies – existing engine companies upgraded to “rescue engines”
- 19 Truck companies – closed 2 companies
- 22 Paramedic ambulances – added 4 ambulances
- 1 Rescue Company
- 6 Battalion Chiefs – lost 1 battalion
2009: Truck 2 (former Aerial Tower 102) is closed.
2012: Truck 15, Squad 11, Truck 10
2020: Proposed closing Engine 4 and Engine 55 to reduce FY2021 budget by $3.6B. Postponed pending results of FACETS Operational and Management Assessment. Defunded seven vacant staff positions. The FACETS workload analysis showed an increase in engine company and medic unit time-on-task for the 2018-2019 response data compared with the 1999 data from the Greater Baltimore Committee and the President’s Roundtable (2021, FACETS, p. 48).
The current configuration of the fire department is:
- 32 Engine companies
- 17 Truck companies
- 1 Heavy Rescue Company
- 3 Squad companies (rescue engines)
- 2 Fireboats
- 21 full-time paramedic ambulances
- 8 full-time EMT ambulances
- 6 battalion chiefs
Unrelenting EMS Workload Outpaces Medic/Ambulance Expansion
In 2000, Baltimore City had the second busiest fire-based ambulances in the United States. As an Assistant Professor at The George Washington University, I followed the efforts by Los Angeles and Baltimore City fire departments to address their overwhelmed ambulance service (2000 – 2007) and created a workload comparison of fire-based 24-hour ambulances.
No Relief for Baltimore EMS Units
The history of Baltimore fire company closures was to reduce firefighter overtime and respond to shrinking fire department budget allocations by the mayor and city council. The O’Malley restructuring in 2000 did not improve 9-1-1 ambulance service, as the time-on-task increasd after adding 4 ambulances:
- 1999: Ambulances spent 14.25 hours in every 24 hours engaged in work
- 2007 (after O’Malley restructure): Ambulances spent 14.4 hours engaged in work [UHU of 0.61]
- 2018-2019 (FACETS report): Ambulances spent 14.54 hours engaged in work
“Red Alert” Fire Company Staffed Ambulances
In the 2000s, there were four “Red Alert” ambulances that were placed into service when the city got down to 3 ambulances. This was accomplished by placing fire companies out of service to staff the Red Alert ambulances. The Red Alert ambulances were activated almost every afternoon.
By 2006 two of the Red Alert ambulances, Medic 41 and Medic 44, were staffed 9 am to 9 pm every day with overtime or detailed firefighters. Each 12-hour unit averaged 7.5 runs every day. Using the Los Angeles City EMS workload metrics, Baltimore needed to add 9 additional paramedic ambulances to meet their 2007 workload.
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1Which is one of the reasons I did not earn an engineering degree.
References
Baltimore Fire Officers IAFF Local 964 (2023 April 19) “On this date in 1986, Aerial Tower 111 was placed in service. Engine Co No 1 and Truck Co No 11 were disbanded and combined to place the tower in service, at their station at 401 W. North Avenue. The unit ran as both an engine and a truck company on fire boxes, and was staffed with 6 personnel. The tower lasted a little over 10 years, being disbanded on 4/9/1997, and the firehouse closed.” FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/BFO964/posts/693953376068826
bcfdl734. (2020, August 20) On this day in 1973, the John F. Steadman station opened at the corner of S Eutaw St & W Lombard St. It was Baltimore’s first “superstation”, [Instagram] https://www.instagram.com/p/CEH-bD6hY29/
FACETS Consulting LLP. (2021, November) Operational & Management Assessment: Baltimore City Fire Department – Final Report.
Fandom. (2026) Firefighting Wiki: Baltimore City Fire Department. https://fire.fandom.com/wiki/Baltimore_City_Fire_Department
Frederick, G. E. (2009). 150th Anniversary of Baltimore City Fire Department. Firehouse. https://www.firehouse.com/home/article/10470198/in-1858-the-mayor-and-city-council-of-baltimore-city-after-much-deliberation-passed-an-ordinance-creating-the-fire-department-of-baltimore-city-five-commissioners-were-appointed-to-oversee-the-organization-the-size-of-the-original-department-was-set
Horse Tales.(2015, January 24). 1922: Waterboy, Danny Beg, and the Last Fire Horses of the New York Fire Department. The Hatching Cat of Gotham. https://hatchingcatnyc.com/2015/01/24/last-fire-horses-new-york-fire-department/
Justia. (1992) Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Baltimore Fire Fighters. 613 A.2d 1023, 93 Md. App. 604. https://law.justia.com/cases/maryland/court-of-special-appeals/1992/1953-september-term-1991-0.html
Legeros, Mike (2013, September 16). Historic Baltimore Firehouses. https://legeros.com/history/baltimore/stations.shtml
Merwin, H. C. (1890, July). Fire Horses. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1890/07/fire-horses/633654/
Scott, E. (2004, September 1) “Almost A Worst Case Scenario”: The Baltimore Tunnel Fire of 2001. A, B & C. Case C16-04-1768.0. Harvard Kennedy School. https://case.hks.harvard.edu/almost-a-worst-case-scenario-the-baltimore-tunnel-fire-of-2001-c/
Simon, H. (1992, January 1) How to Bite the Bullet: Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Fire Station Closings (A), Case #1129.0. Harvard Kennedy School. https://case.hks.harvard.edu/how-to-bite-the-bullet-baltimore-mayor-kurt-l-schmoke-and-fire-station-closings-a/
staff. (2000a, May 10). 7 firehouses to close; O’Malley to present plan as part of his first budget today; ‘Dangerous stuff’; Mayor says proposal could save Baltimore up to $5 million. The Baltimore Sun. https://www.baltimoresun.com/2000/05/10/7-firehouses-to-close-omalley-to-present-plan-as-part-of-his-first-budget-today-dangerous-stuff-mayor-says-proposal-could-save-baltimore-up-to-5-million/
staff. (2000b May 24). The debate: city fire coverage. The Baltimore Sun. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2000-05-24-0005240127-story.html
U.S. Census Bureau, Resident Population in Baltimore City, MD [MDBALT5POP], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MDBALT5POP, August 3, 2026.