WASHINGTON – A volunteer Prince George’s County fire chief was arrested in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday in Waldorf, Maryland, and has been charged with 49 traffic violations.

The Charles County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that they went to a house on Lisa Drive, in Waldorf, at about 4:50 a.m. after getting a call that a man was threatening to slash the tires on his girlfriend’s car.

When they got there, they saw the man in a Ford F-150. They tried to pull him over, but he drove off, and they stopped chasing him when they got to the Prince George’s County line, the statement said.

The sheriffs got another call a little after 6 a.m. that the man had come back. This time, he was in a Ford Explorer with logos from the Silver Hill Fire Department, in Prince George’s County, the sheriffs said. After a second chase – this one only about a mile – the driver, Matthew Fowler, 49, of Waldorf, the volunteer chief of the Silver Hill Fire Department, pulled over.

He was arrested and charged with 49 violations, including negligent driving and reckless driving, the sheriffs said. They added that he was driving a fire department vehicle at the time.

(The Charles County Sheriff’s Office originally reported that Fowler had been driving the fire department vehicle both times, and have corrected the number of citations he was issued.)

Prince George’s County Fire Department spokesman Mark Brady said Flower has been relieved of duty.

WTOP’s Dick Uliano contributed to this report.