CUMBERLAND – September 16, 2026

Senator Mike McKay earned the endorsement of the Allegany-Garrett Counties Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, the organization that has represented volunteer fire and rescue companies across both counties since 1912.

The association’s member companies cover some of the most demanding ground in Maryland: mountain roads, long response times, and a service area where the closest paid department can be counties away. When a barn goes up outside Frostburg or a car leaves the road on a mountain grade, the people who answer are volunteers.

“There is no backup coming from somewhere else out here,” McKay said. “The volunteer companies are the plan. That is not a talking point, it is just how it works in Allegany and Garrett Counties, and any senator representing this district had better understand it.”

As Chairman of the Fire and EMS Coalition, McKay has made volunteer readiness a consistent piece of his work in Annapolis. He secured $100,000 for the Oakland Volunteer Fire Department in Garrett County for facility repairs and equipment, delivered a $50,000 check to the Flintstone Fire Department this August, and pushed departments across the region to compete for federal and private safety grants they were eligible for and had not claimed.

“These companies raise their own money with chicken dinners and boot drives, and then they buy their own gear,” McKay said. “The least Annapolis can do is stop making it harder.”

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