Fire Dispatches Up In Southern Fairfax County: Report

MOUNT VERNON, VA—Dispatches for fires are up and EMS calls are slightly down in the southern part of Fairfax County, according to the fire department's new annual report.

In fiscal year 2018 (ending on June 30, 2018), Fairfax County Fire and Rescue responded to 103,946 incidents in the county and surrounding jurisdictions, a 2.6 percent increase from the previous year. The county had six fatal fires, all of which were accidental. Fiscal year 2017 had seen one incendiary and two accidental fires.

The report provides statistics for each battalion, broken up into seven zones around the county. Battalion 406 generally covers the Richmond Highway corridor between the Alexandria and Fort Belvoir borders, as well as the Lorton and Gunston areas. The battalion handled 2,464 dispatches for fires in fiscal year 2018, an increase of 82. EMS dispatches slightly fell to 11,833.

Of the 15,514 dispatches in the battalion, 74 percent involved EMS or rescue, 2 percent were fires, 3 percent were hazardous conditions and 7 percent were false alarms or malfunctions.

The battalion had an average 4.85 minute response time for the first EMS unit arriving and 5.8 minutes for the first fire unit arriving. The quickest response times in the county were 4.58 minutes for EMS and 5.63 minutes for fire (Falls Church-Annandale areas).

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue is the state's largest fire department with more than 1,400 uniformed personnel, 355 volunteers, 175 full-time civilians and 38 fire and rescue stations.

See the full report here.

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