The Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) provides essential fire, emergency medical, and allied public safety services for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church in Virginia, USA. It is highly regarded within the profession as an innovator and leader in enhancing the industry. Among its many firsts are the hiring of the first female career firefighter in the nation in 1974 and partnering with the United States Public Health Service to develop America's first Metropolitan Medical Strike Team to respond to the consequences of a chemical, biological or radiological terrorist attack.
The county fire department operates ten stations and is a signatory to an automatic regional response plan with neighboring Fairfax County as well as the city of Alexandria, and participates in a regional mutual aid pact with the District of Columbia and the Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, also in Arlington County, fields a fire department and works closely with the county's fire service. The 305 employees of the Fire Department are committed to eliminating threats to the lives, safety and property of the Arlington community. They provide services through a combination of education, prevention and effective response to fire, medical and environmental emergencies.
The Arlington County Fire Department holds a Class 2 Rating from the Insurance Services Organization, the highest rating given to a Virginia fire department, and one of only three such ratings awarded in the state. This rating helps the local community by bringing lower insurance rates to homeowners and businesses.
Read more about Arlington County Fire Department: 9/11 and The Pentagon, Staffing, Volunteer Operations
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““Because a few complacent years
Have made your peril of your pride,
Think you that you are to go on
Forever pampered and untired?”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“Hold hard, my county darlings, for a hawk descends,
Golden Glamorgan straightens, to the falling birds.
Your sport is summer as the spring runs angrily.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“The divinity in man is the true vestal fire of the temple which is never permitted to go out, but burns as steadily and with as pure a flame on the obscure provincial altar as in Numa’s temple at Rome.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.”
—Tennessee Williams (1914–1983)