A group of volunteer firefighters in Prince George’s County have been indicted and charged with arson, conspiracy, and misconduct in office, State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy and officials from the county fire department announced on Friday.

The five firefighters — Jeremy Hawkins, Jay St. John, Cole Vazquez, Nicholas Holzberger and George Smith — were volunteers with the West Lanham Hills Volunteer Fire Department. They are accused of collaborating with two civilians, Giancarlo Reyes and Francis Ortiz-Oro, who are accused of setting four fires at vacant structures in the county in early 2020.

Officials said they suspect Reyes and Ortiz-Oro — in one case, alongside Smith — set the fires at times when the five firefighters were on duty and could respond to them.

“Going to fires is extremely dangerous business,” department spokesperson Jennifer Donelan said Friday’s press conference announcing the indictments. “Despite the fact that these were vacant structures, firefighters could have been injured in extinguishing these fires. There was a potential for real danger here.”

Hawkins is being held in custody on a $50,000 bond, and the other four men have received court summonses.

At a press conference to announce the indictments, Braveboy called the situation “unacceptable and disheartening.”

“It makes us angry that anyone who has sworn to protect our communities would do anything to harm them,” she said. “We are going to pursue this case zealously.”

The five firefighters were removed from their posts in early 2020, when the investigation into the four fires began. Investigators discovered Reyes’ 2019 application to be a volunteer firefighter with the West Lanham Hills department was denied after a background check, but that supervisors at the station permitted him to continue to spend time there. Ortiz-Oro also started the application process, but never concluded it. He and Reyes were friends, the investigation found.

County Fire Chief Tiffany Green said in a statement that the actions of the five indicted former firefighters “in absolutely no way represent the hardworking volunteer and career firefighters who serve our community every day,” and emphasized that the men had been taken off duty in early 2020, in the early days of the investigation.

Fire department officials said the department would conduct further investigations into policy or conduct violations in the West Lanham Hills location, but had been prevented from doing so at the outset because of the need to protect the criminal investigation.

“There were violations of policies and procedures that were witnessed that will be addressed,” a spokeswoman for the department said.

Other branches of the county’s public safety department have also come under recent scrutiny. Earlier this week, a veteran county police officer was indicted for assault and misconduct in office after allegedly grabbing a Black teenager. In February, new details emerged surrounding allegations that Prince George’s County officers routinely racially profiled people and that Black and Brown officers on the force were subject to harsher disciplinary actions than their white counterparts. Last week, a federal judge found the police department’s promotions system was discriminating against Black and Brown officers and ordered the department to stop using it until it could complete an independent investigation into the matter.