Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department

Agency overview
Established	1949
Employees	1,600 career, 300 volunteer personnel
Staffing	Combination career and volunteer organization
Fire chief	Ronald L. Mastin
EMS level	ALS and BLS
Motto	Provide the highest quality services to protect the lives, property, and environment of our community.
Facilities and equipment
Stations	38
Engines	38
Trucks	14
Rescues	8
Ambulances	42

The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is a career department supplemented by volunteers. The department provides fire suppression, emergency medical, technical rescue, hazardous materials, water rescue, life safety education, fire prevention and arson investigation services to Fairfax County, Virginia. Emergency medical services include advanced life support response by ALS capable engines and transport units.

As part of the Northern Virginia regional response system, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue is labeled number 4 in the 800MHZ trucked radio system. All FCFR units begin with 4 followed by the station number. For example, the engine from station 4 is Engine 404, and the tower-ladder from station 36 is Tower 436. During an emergency that would require a response from multiple agencies, dispatchers are quickly able to identify what county a particular piece of apparatus came from.

Overview

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department consists of 38 fire stations. (Fairfax City Fire Department operates stations 3 and 33.) The stations cover an area of 395 square miles. With over 1,300 uniformed staff, and 300 operational volunteers, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is the largest fire department in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

FCFR is one of the most highly funded departments (per capita) in the nation, and is able to supply its employees with the most advanced technology available. As of January 1-2007, the department had an operating budget of nearly $175 million dollars (roughly $175 per person, compared with FDNY’s budget of $125 per person.)

Each year the department receives over 30,000 employment applications. The recruitment process is highly competitive and often takes over a year to complete all the necessary steps.

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue also sponsors one of the nation’s USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) response teams. Code-named “Virginia Task Force 1,” the team is rostered by approximately 200 specially trained career and volunteer fire and rescue personnel, with expertise in the rescue of victims from collapsed structures, following a natural or man-made catastrophic event. The team is composed of emergency managers and planners, physicians and paramedics and includes specialists in the fields of structural engineering, heavy rigging, collapse rescue, logistics, hazardous materials, communications, canine operations, and technical search. Virginia Task Force 1 has partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency for domestic response and the United States Agency for International Development/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance during international missions. As a part of the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department, the task force maintains constant operational readiness as a local resource for residents of Fairfax County and surrounding jurisdictions.

There are 12 active volunteer fire departments in Fairfax County. Volunteers are active operationally as well as administratively - with nearly 300 volunteer personnel available to provide supplemental staffing for fire and rescue services.

Fire hydrants are quite common in Fairfax and thus the county only has 4 tanker trucks stationed in the few remaining rural parts of the county: Great Falls, Clifton, Crosspointe, and the area around U.S. Route 1 near Gunston.

In 2007 Fairfax Fire & Rescue responded to 92,088 calls, nearly 70% of which were EMS related.

Employees work rotating shifts, based on the “federal government system.” 24on – 24off – 24on – 24off – 24on – 96off.

Station	Locality	Fire Units				EMS Units		Battalion Management
		Engine	Truck	Heavy Squad	Tanker	Medic Unit	Ambulance	Battalion Chief	EMS Supervisor
Station 1-V	McLean	X	X	X		X	X
Station 2-V	Vienna	X				X
Station 3-V	City of Fairfax	X	X	X		X	X	X
Station 4	Herndon	X				X
Station 5-V	Franconia	X	X			X	X
Station 8-V	Annandale	X	X			X	X	X
Station 9	Mount Vernon	X				X		X
Station 10-V	Bailey's Crossroads	X	X			X	X
Station 11	Penn Daw	X	X	X		X	X
Station 12-V	Great Falls	X			X		X
Station 13-V	Dunn Loring	X					X	X
Station 14-V	Burke	X		X			X
Station 15	Chantilly	X				X
Station 16	Clifton	X			X		X
Station 17-V	Centreville	X				X
Station 18	Jefferson	X		X		X			X
Station 19-V	Lorton	X		X		X
Station 20	Gunston	X			X		X
Station 21-V	Fair Oaks	X		X		X	X	X
Station 22-V	Springfield	X	X			X
Station 23	West Annandale	X					X
Station 24	Woodlawn	X	X			X			X
Station 25	Reston	X	X			X		X
Station 26	Edsall Road	X		X		X			X
Station 27	West Springfield	X	X			X
Station 28	Seven Corners	X					X
Station 29	Tysons Corner	X	X			X			X
Station 30	Merrifield	X	X				X
Station 31	Fox Mill	X					X		X
Station 32	Fairview	X				X		X
Station 33-V	City of Fairfax	X				X
Station 34	Oakton	X					X
Station 35	Pohick	X					X
Station 36	Frying Pan	X	X				X
Station 37-V	Kingstowne	X		X		X	X	X
Station 38	West Centreville	X	X			X
Station 39	North Point	X		X		X
Station 40	Fairfax Center	X	X			X			X
Station 41	Crosspointe	X	X		X	X
Station 42	Wolftrap	X				X

External links

Rescue 439

• Fairfax County Fire and Rescue homepage
• FCFRD Station list
• Department Patches
• Fairfax County Volunteer Fire Rescue Association