Bedbugs Infest Ferndale Fire Station In Glen Burnie

GLEN BURNIE, MD —It's business as usual at the Ferndale Fire Station in Glen Burnie after the building was vacated for three weeks this summer due to a bed bug infestation. Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials had to relocate their ambulance crew from the station on Broadview Boulevard to the station in Linthicum for the treatment to occur.

The area first was cleaned, then an exterminator used a chemical treatment process three times. A few bedbugs were still detected afterward, so a high heat process was used, propelling temperatures in the building to 155 degrees. The station has not been staffed around the clock for about a decade, but two career firefighters do man the station weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Otherwise, volunteers staff the station when they can.

Capt. Russ Davies, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, told the Capital Gazette that the bedbug battle isn't something new, that in fact it happens once a year across the country.

"I can't tell you if the firefighters bring them in or if they come back from a call," he told the newspaper.

Bedbugs are small, reddish-brown parasitic insects that bite the exposed skin of sleeping humans and animals to feed on their blood. The size of an apple seed, bedbugs hide in the cracks and crevices of beds, box springs, headboards, bed frames and any other objects around a bed. Bedbug bites are similar to other insect bites and rashes, according to the Mayo Clinic. Usually, bedbug bites are red with a darker red spot in the middle, itchy, form a line or a cluster and are predominately located on the face, neck, arms and hands. Some people do experience an allergic reaction to the bites.