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Fire stations in southern Prince George's, like their counterparts across the county, are struggling as money from the county and private individuals dries up in the midst of an economic crisis, responders and county officials say.

The county stopped paying for most repairs to vehicles on April 29, said John Alter, the chairman of the Prince George's County Fire Commission, adding that there are currently more than 20 firetrucks and other vehicles that are out of service.

Most stations did not receive station management funds — county money used for day-to-day expenses ranging from cleaning supplies to computer repairs — when they were expected toward the end of last year, and none of the county's stations got the checks when they were expected in February, Alter said.

Mark Brady, a Fire/EMS Department spokesman, said both sets of checks came through on Wednesday and are now available for the Fire Commission to distribute. But he said most repair work will probably remain on hold until at least the beginning of the next budget year in July.

"It's not secret to anybody that we're in a tough financial situation," Brady said. "[But] based on our size department, based on the population we serve, we have probably the largest fleet of any fire station in the country."

Stations in southern Prince George's had the county's longest response times in fiscal 2008, according to data from the Fire/EMS Department, a fact that Brady and fire personnel blame on huge coverage zones in the rural area that is in some cases 40 times larger than areas manned by other departments.

Alter and Brady said they do not believe the cuts will affect the stations' response capabilities. Brady referred questions about more recent response times to the office of Acting Fire Chief Eugene A. Jones, which did not respond by press time to a Public Information Act request sent May 13.

Julian "Jay" Tucker, the president of Upper Marlboro departments in the town of Upper Marlboro and on nearby Croom Road, said the second of two vehicles at the Croom Road station broke down last week. Unable to get them repaired, he had to reassign a firetruck from the Upper Marlboro station, he said.

"If [another] truck breaks down and puts the firetruck operations out of business, of course that's going to affect responses," Tucker said. "But I don't see that happening in the immediate future."

Bobby Breen, a volunteer and former chief at the Baden fire station in Brandywine, said responders have been doing minor repairs on vehicles themselves instead of taking them to the county's service shop, and in some cases paying for the work out of their own pockets.

The station was able to get federal funding to repair a Jeep used for responding to brush fires that was destroyed in a fire, but Breen said that if the county was able to pay for the work, the station would have been able to spend the federal grant on needed repairs to two vehicles bought in the 1980s.

"Rather than spending [the grant money] as soon as we get it, we bank it and save it for that special project," Breen said.

Breen said the Baden station is also receiving fewer charitable contributions and is seeing fewer people rent out its hall for weddings and other special events.

Station management funds, which come out to a little more than $20,000 for each station every year, were held up partially because stations could not agree with the county on written agreements for dispersing them, Alter said. Stations said the county's conditions were too burdensome, and the only ones that got the money late in 2008 were 14 stations that signed the agreements out of desperation, Alter said.

Jones, who took over since the initial agreements were written, reached an accord with the fire stations, and all of them have now signed the agreements, Alter said.

Jeffrey Beavers, president of the Brandywine Volunteer Fire Department, said his volunteers have been talking to residents and driving through neighborhoods in an effort to raise awareness of the station and encourage contributions. He said he has also seen declines in charitable contributions and people renting his hall.

"This time a year ago, I wasn't worried about money," he said. "This year I have, like, 17 dollars in my [station management account]."

The station management money declined even before the recession began, from about $30,000 per station two years ago to around $20,000 in 2008, Alter said. Breen, from the Baden station, said he worries that even after the new fiscal year begins in July, money will still be tight.

"We're holding on right now," he said. "[But] the damn deficit just keeps growing."

But Beavers said he is not worried about cuts affecting the station's response time.

"The county won't allow central services to be compromised," he said. "They're good at finding a way."

E-mail Greg Holzheimer at gholzheimer@gazette.net.