Montgomery County firefighters responded to more than 12,200 emergency calls in July, a pace that slightly outstripped the department's full-year 2025 average and reflects the kind of sustained demand already straining the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. BCCRS, which is fully integrated into MCFRS and serves Bethesda and Chevy Chase directly, hit its highest call volume since 2016 last year, averaging more than 24 responses per day, according to the squad's annual report.

MCFRS Chief Spokesperson Pete Piringer posted the countywide monthly summary on Tuesday, Aug. 4, reporting 12,203 total incidents, 394 per day, with 22,875 individual unit responses, or about 738 per day.

The month's deadliest and costliest incident was a house fire at the 2400 block of Harmon Road in Silver Spring on July 5. Two women were found dead inside the single-family home after firefighters forced entry to the second floor, where heavy fire had taken hold. One firefighter was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

The fire was spotted around 4:18 a.m. by an EMS crew returning from a hospital transport. The crew noticed a haze on Georgia Avenue near Plyers Mill Road, investigated and called it in.

"When crews arrived on the scene, they found heavy fire in the second floor of a single family home," MCFRS spokesperson David Pazos told WTOP on July 5.

Piringer's monthly summary listed the Harmon Road fire as the largest property loss of July at $700,000. The cause remained under investigation as of initial reporting. The victims' identities have not been publicly released.

Rising call volume

July's daily call rate of 394 sits just above the 392-per-day average MCFRS logged across all of 2025, according to department figures we reported July 28. Day-to-day demand varied widely: Piringer reported 421 incidents on a single shift Saturday, Aug. 1, and 354 on Sunday, Aug. 2.

Residents who want free smoke alarm installations can contact MCFRS or the American Red Cross through Montgomery County's 311 service line.