In 1974, President Gerald Ford authorized EMS Week to celebrate EMS practitioners and the important work they do in our nation's communities. Back then, EMS was a new profession, and EMS practitioners had only just started to be recognized as a critical component of emergency medicine and the public health safety net. Since then, EMS is now firmly established as an essential public function and a vital component of the medical care continuum.

Interested in becoming a first responder? Get involved with the Alexandria Fire Department's Teenage Explorer Program. If you are 14 to 20 years old and interested in learning about becoming a firefighter, paramedic, EMT, physician, nurse or member of the U.S. military, consider joining the Explorer Program.

The purpose of the Alexandria Community Fire Academy is to educate the Alexandria community about fire safety and emergency medical response, while learning about the history, administration, operations and apparatus of an urban public safety agency. The goal of the Academy is to build partnerships within the community by helping participants understand how the fire department works, and to encourage volunteering within the community.

In 2014, the Alexandria Fire Department began transitioning from a single-role staffing model to a dual-role or “all-hazards” model. The primary purposes of this transition are to provide a higher level of service to our community by ensuring that at least one member of every fire or ambulance crew will be certified to provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) care, and that all fire engines and trucks will have a crew of four instead of three.