Fire Department

Greetings,

On behalf of the men and women of the City of Fairfax Fire Department, it is my pleasure welcome you to our website. We to hope that you find the information useful and interesting.

The City of Fairfax Fire Department is a combination department comprised of career employees and our partners with the Fairfax Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. As a team, we provide fire suppression, emergency medical service, and special response operations to the city, areas of the county that immediately surround our community, as well as the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University (GMU).

Our organizational motto is "Taking Pride in Excellence". Our members live up to that motto every day and strive to provide the highest levels of public service. As a department, we are proud of the level and quality of service that our members provide to our community on a daily basis. The website showcases our members and the work that they do for our community.

In 2017 and reaffirmed in 2023, our department received an ISO rating of 1(PDF, 351KB). ISO collects information on municipal fire-protection efforts in communities throughout the United States and assigns a Public Protection Classification from 1 to 10. Class 1 generally represents superior property fire protection. This helps secure lower fire insurance premiums for communities with better public protection.

There are currently only nine jurisdictions in the Commonwealth of Virginia with an ISO 1 rating.

On March 3, 2020, our department received its first accredited agency status with the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE). We received our second accredited agency status on March 31, 2025.This prestigious recognition was given for meeting the criteria of the Commission on Fire Accreditation International’s (CFAI) voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program.

There are currently 326 accredited fire departments in the United States, Canada, and U.S. Department of Defense installations across the world. This represents 11% of the U.S. population and 17% of the Canadian population being protected by an accredited fire department. We have joined 123 fire departments across the U.S. that hold both the ISO 1 Rating and Accredited Agency status.

This culminates years of work by our command staff, program managers, and personnel to document and assess our risks in the community, response performance, develop a comprehensive five year strategic plan, and demonstrate compliance in eleven major categories with over 250 performance indicators. I am very proud of the work that our members completed working towards this continuous improvement model and the great service we provide to the community daily.

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John O'Neal
Fire Chief
City of Fairfax Fire Department

Administration

• Provides overall policy and administrative oversight and support for the department

Fire and EMS Operations

• Oversees day-to-day delivery of fire and EMS service
• Training and professional development
• Emergency medical service programs.
• Provides all hazards emergency medical, fire suppression, vehicle rescue, and swift water rescue services to the citizens of The City of Fairfax
• Personnel are assigned to one of three shifts
  • A, B or C
  • Each shift is 24 hours starting at 0700 and ending at 0700 the next day
  • Schedule ensures the fire department is ready to respond 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to a variety of emergency incidents including fires, motor vehicle accidents, medical emergencies, and gas and utility emergencies.
  • “24-hour shift” requires operations division employees to carry out a variety of tasks throughout the day such as meal preparation, physical activity, and housekeeping duties.

Code Administration

• Includes building code administration & plans review
• Inspections and investigations
• Life safety education and emergency management

Mission

To protect our community through risk reduction, readiness, response, and recovery.

Vision

Preparing today to provide a safer tomorrow.

Core Values

A strategic plan is a living management tool that provides short term direction, builds upon identified strengths and shared vision, documents goals, objectives, and accomplishments, and optimizes internal and external resources to accomplish the mission. In early 2022, the department set out to update its strategic plan after tracking many successes from the published 2019 plan. As an end result, the department established realistic goals and objectives using internal and external stakeholder input to chart the course for the continued future success of the organization.

City of Fairfax Fire Department Strategic Plan(PDF, 4MB)

On behalf of the dedicated, trained, and professional career and volunteer members of the City of Fairfax Fire Department, it is a pleasure to present our 2024 Annual Report(PDF, 15MB).

The City of Fairfax Fire Department is a fast-paced fire and EMS system that operates out of two stations. Fire Station 3 includes an advanced life support (ALS) transport unit; Foam Engine; Tower (ladder) Company; and the duty Battalion Chief. The second station, Fire Station 33, houses a specialized Rescue Engine Company, which has both heavy rescue and firefighting capability, an ALS transport unit, and swift water unit. Suppression units also have ALS capability. In 2024, the department responded to 9,273 fire and EMS incidents that resulted in 13,751 unit responses to handle the incidents. The department averages 38 unit responses per day.

The department has an operational field strength of 63 career members on three shifts and work 24 hour shifts over a 56 hour work week. These suppression units also have ALS intervention capabilities for first responder purposes. The EMS transport units are staffed with 2 fire medics.

The City of Fairfax Fire Department also has a modern 5 story propane burn building, a two-story classroom facility with a high bay garage, and a full-scale single-family RIT (Rapid Intervention) house. This training facility is a one-of-a-kind asset that benefits not only the members of the department but members across the region as well.

The city comprises a 6.3 square mile area that includes a downtown historical area, commercial and light industry, residential, high rise, strip shopping centers and interstate highways. Some of our key complexes include a large petroleum tank farm, George Mason University, the Fairfax County Judicial Center complex, and an adjoining interstate highway.

The Fairfax Volunteer Fire Department (FVFD) is an integral part of the city’s fire and EMS operations, providing state-of-the-art apparatus and facilities, and operational staffing at all levels of suppression and EMS operations.

For further details, visit Fairfax Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.