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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Alexandria Fire Department is operating with near-full staffing, improving morale and an eye on a rare national rating that could lower insurance costs for residents and businesses, Chief Felipe Hernandez Jr. told city council Tuesday during the department's annual update.
The department currently runs nine fire stations with a response model of nine engines, three trucks and six transport units, staffed by 348.5 full-time employees — 301 in operations. Four additional positions are expected to be added mid-fiscal year 2027.
Total calls for service rose slightly to 28,520 in calendar year 2025, up 1.4% from 28,133 in 2024 and up 16.1% from 24,567 five years ago. Fires and alarms ticked up 0.7% while medical and rescue incidents dropped 3.2% year over year.
Staffing picture improving
Attrition fell to an average of 2.0 employees per month in 2025, below the 10-year average of 2.1 and down from 2.3 in 2024. Hernandez said the nature of departures has shifted as meaningfully as the numbers. "The good news about that is the attrition hasn't been about people going to other fire departments," he said. "I would say it's been about close to a year since we've had someone leave to go to another fire department. These are mostly due to retirements and other people leaving for other life reasons."
Five firefighters returned to the department during fiscal year 2026. Current vacancies stand at five. Recruit School 59 launched May 26 with 14 recruits — the department's full capacity — and another class is planned for early next year.
Hernandez credited a new work schedule with driving the improvement. A 49-hour work week went into effect on October 11, 2025. "We're not forcing people to not go home to stay in work overtime," he said. "That's been dropping as well." Under the city's collective bargaining agreement with Local 2141, the department is required to reach a 46-hour work week by December 31, 2028. Four of the additional FTE positions coming mid-FY2027 are tied to that commitment.
Chasing a top-1% rating
The department earned its first-ever CFAI accreditation last year from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International and reported Tuesday that its first annual compliance report was successfully submitted and approved in February. Hernandez said the accreditor pushed the department to track incidents by census tract rather than fire zone, bringing it in line with how the rest of the city analyzes data. "Now the fire department is doing apples-to-apples comparisons in regard to what's happening on those specific tracts," he said.
Looking ahead, the department is targeting an ISO Class 1 fire safety rating by its next evaluation in 2028. The Insurance Services Office rating evaluates fire protection capabilities — including the department, dispatching and water supply infrastructure — and directly affects what residents and businesses pay for property insurance. The department currently holds a Class 2 and needs a score of 90 to reach Class 1; it is currently at 88. "To be fair to them, DEC got an excellent score," Hernandez said of the city's emergency communications center. "The last few things that are needed is something that we could handle internally within the fire department."
Fewer than 1% of fire departments in the country hold both CFAI accreditation and an ISO Class 1 rating. Hernandez said he hopes to be there in two years. Council members were enthusiastic. "We're striving to be in the top 1%, which means we're already probably in the top 5%," Aguirre said. "This is a big turnaround."
EMS response model
The department is also refining how it matches response resources to call type — sending basic life support units to BLS calls and paramedics to calls that require them, rather than defaulting to the highest level of care for every incident. Of six transport units, four are ALS and two are BLS. Data from adjustments made in November 2025 showed BLS calls staying BLS 98% of the time and ALS calls staying ALS 99% of the time — figures Hernandez said confirm the department is calibrating correctly.
"A BLS call gets BLS services. A call that requires a paramedic gets a paramedic," he said. "That's kind of our goal here to make efficient use of our resources." He cautioned that the model will require ongoing evaluation. "That's something that I can't do in three months. We want to make sure we don't move too fast or make too many changes because if things go wrong, it's hard to determine what caused the changes."
West End stations on the horizon
Gaskins asked how the department is engaging with the city's major land use plans — the AlexWest plan, the Duke Street plan and Housing 2040 — as call volume grows on the west end. Hernandez said a fire station at the Landmark site is an active conversation and a study is underway this year to identify the right location for a station on Cameron Street. "The focus does need to be a little bit more on the west side because that's where our call volume is increasing," he said.
Councilwoman Jacinta Greene asked about recruiting from Alexandria City High School. Hernandez said the department visits the school's EMT class and has been working with Minnie Howard on a firefighter intern program, though the school has not yet been able to commit to providing an instructor. Conversations are continuing.
Hernandez also introduced two members of his senior leadership: Assistant Chief of Administration Michael Cross, who is in his 41st year with the department — "he's been talking about retirement, but I'm going to disregard that conversation right now," Hernandez said — and new Assistant Chief of Operations Daniel McCoy, who joined from DC Fire.
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