"The Prince George's County Fire/Emergency Medical Services Department is going through one of the most challenging times in our history."

Those were the words of Prince George's County Acting Fire Chief Eugene Jones, in a copy of a memorandum obtained by the Blade-News, outlining new staffing policies. Staffing policies that will potentially leave Bowie fire houses without any career firefighters for 16 days in July and every month following until June 2010, in an effort to cut overtime costs within the fire department.

In July, Station 43 (Mitchellville) is slated to be without its four career...