Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service will collect data for three more months to determine whether the reduction of career firefighters' overtime at three fire stations is tenable for the long term.

Chief Reggie Bowers told members of the County Council Public Safety Committee Thursday about the impacts of overtime reductions, which cut two hours of career overtime per day from the Kensington Fire Department Station 5, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad and the Wheaton Rescue Squad. The hours of 5 to 6 p.m. and 6 to 7 a.m. have been manned by volunteer firefighters since July.

"We have not compromised public safety, but it is a delicate situation and is monitored on a daily basis," Bowers said. "I'm very happy to say that the volunteer personnel have stepped up and provided a tremendous amount of coverage in this situation."

The extra hours have created logistical problems for the for volunteer firefighters trying to get to work or school after their shifts, and the chief of the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad said it could lead to gaps in coverage. The logistical issue is the reason overtime hours were added to the schedule, and strains on the county budget forced the Council to cut the overtime allotment by $216,000. County Executive Isiah Leggett, pointing to a countywide increase in volunteer firefighters, had suggested a $416,000 cut.

There has been one documented failure to respond to a call during the hours that career staffers have been cut, a failure at Station 5 to send a second ambulance that was not staffed. The failure was blamed on a dispatch error and was not the result of overtime reductions, according to Kensington Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jim Stanton.

The failure occurred because a vehicle that was staffed through the night had not been reported as unmanned to dispatch in the morning, so dispatch attempted to send the vehicle to a crash on Interstate 495. Stanton said the error was recognized quickly "and somebody picked up the phone and said there's nobody here, so they sent somebody else. There was nobody laying in the street waiting."

Allan Platky, chief of the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad, said a more serious failure in coverage is a matter of time. Platky's station has seen the most cuts, with four of nine staffers gone, leaving one Basic Life Saving Vehicle and one Advanced Life Saving vehicle out-of-service for two hours a day.

Platky said a gap in coverage could occur if multiple calls come in while staff is reduced.

The gap should be prevented by the new system, which would send support from surrounding stations. Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad is running one of its usual two Advanced Life Saving Vehicles, and Kensington Station 5 is running a single engine that can double as a Basic Life Saving Vehicle.

Assistant Fire Chief Scott Graham said the three stations were chosen for the reduction due to the availability of volunteers and nearby stations that could provide back-up.

Graham said concerns about gaps in coverage can only be mitigated by the fact that there haven't been any failures except for the one blamed on the administrative error. Response times to emergencies have remained relatively level.

Staff Writer Erin Cunningham contributed to this report.