The Loudoun County Combined Fire-Rescue System (LC-CFRS) is made up of the career Loudoun County Fire and Rescue (LCFR) and 16 volunteer organizations. LC-CFRS has the responsibility of protecting the citizens and property of the towns, villages, and suburbs of Loudoun County, Virginia, from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, and technical rescue response services, including Hazardous Materials mitigation, Mass Casualty Incident response services, environmental danger response services and more. The headquarters and training facilities of the department are in Leesburg, off Sycolin Road."– LCFR Headquarters ." LCFR Website. Retrieved on March 2, 2010.

LC-CFRS, has approximately 700 volunteer personnel and 800 career staff that make up its firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMT), paramedics and other emergency responders.– LCFR Staffing Retrieved on March 3, 2010 LC-CFRS uses a combined system to help respond to a diverse population spread throughout a suburban and rural county. Units can respond to building types that range from wood-frame single-family homes to high-rise structures, bridges and tunnels, large parks and wooded areas that can give rise to major brush fires, as well as large stretches of forest and mountains, such as the Blue Ridge Mountains, in addition to metro and bus lines. LC-CFRS provides care for a very large and diverse area, responding from stations scattered strategically throughout the county.

Organization LC-CFRS uses a combination system, with career employees and volunteer members, to provide fire, rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS) to its citizens.

Throughout the 1980s and much of the 1990s, Loudoun's fire/rescue services were provided by volunteers supplemented by career Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs). Over time, increased demand for service coupled with fewer volunteers available during daytime hours necessitated hiring additional career personnel.

Between Fiscal Year (FY) 93 and FY09, the number of career personnel has grown from 56.95 Full-Time Equivalent Employees (FTEs) to 504.01 FTEs.4 The volunteer component of the System comprises an estimated 1,476 total volunteers, approximately 770 of whom are active either operationally and/or administratively. Both of these groups see continuous, steady growth in terms of numbers and operational members.

LC-CFRS, around 2015, began the process of evaluating and potentially restructuring the department's upper management: the Fire-Rescue Commission, a board that oversees the entirety of the department, reports to the Chief and the county Board of Supervisors. The new structure will eliminate the commission, and will replace it with an executive committee, made up of several sub-committees (Presidents, Rescue Chiefs, and Fire Chiefs committees, amongst others), that will report to the Chief. The Chief will in turn then report to the County Administrator, who will report to the BOS. In 2015, LCFR instituted billing for EMS transports to hospitals, in a soft-billing capacity.

LC-CFRS At the head of the Loudoun County Combined Fire-Rescue System, including the career and volunteer personnel that make up the department, is Chief James Williams (C600). Under Chief Williams are two Assistant Chiefs, and ten Deputy Chiefs, six in charge of a branch of the department and four serving as rotating Operations Shift Commanders. Additionally serving directly under Chief Williams is Dr. Mary Maguire, Manager of Finance and Administrative Services and the department of Professional Standards. The Office of Emergency Management used to operate under the Chief of the department, before it was moved, sometime between 2017 and 2019, to be directly under the County Administrator, Tim Hemstreet, who the Chief also reports to. In 2025 Keith Johnson appointed James Williams after his announcement of his retirement from system-wide chief which was effective in 4/11/2025."- LCFR Chief Williams Loudoun.gov, Retrieved on May 23, 2025)

In a March 2018 Board of Directors meeting, a budget was approved that included funding for a new Deputy Chief for Volunteer Services, as well as two more Shift Commanders, four more EMS Supervisors (creating a new EMS 602 position), and other ancillary positions. EMS602 is placed at Purcellville Public Safety Center. On 5/9/18, an internal department memo confirmed that starting in late June, 2018, the Shift Commander would become a 24/7 role, based out of Station 22, and that EMS602 would be out of Station 14. In July, 2018 it was announced that Deputy Chief Williams had been promoted to the Assistant Chief role; leaving his DC spot to be filled, as well as a new DC for Volunteer Services position. In Summer 2017, LCFR implemented a "Shift Commander" position, operating 7 days a week from 0600 to 1800, that utilizes two Deputy Chiefs on a rotating schedule. These two positions assumed the responsibilities of the old Deputy Chief of Operations position. With the addition of two more Shift Commanders in Spring, 2018, the position became a 24/7 role. These four Deputy Chiefs all rotate being on duty, while on duty they are referred to as the Shift Commander, with a dispatch callsign of "Operations 600".

Within LCFR, there is a Fire-Rescue System Chief, two Assistant Chiefs (ACs),"- Loudoun Fire." Loudoun Fire Website. Retrieved on August 27, 2015. and ten Deputy Chiefs (DCs), who are each in charge of multiple departments, sections, programs, or endeavors.

Fire-Rescue System Chief (radio/dispatch ID): Chief James Williams (C600)

The two Assistant Chiefs are responsible for: Operations: Acting Assistant Chief Michael Nally (AC600) Support Services & Volunteer Administration: Assistant Chief Travis Preau (AC600B)

The ten Deputy Chiefs are responsible for: Operations: Three Deputy Chiefs rotating under the title of "Shift Commander" - Deputy Chief's Michael Nally, Aaron Jacobs, & Roger Martin (O600, O600B) Fire Marshal's Office: Chief Fire Marshall Micah Kiger (FM600) Volunteer Services: Deputy Chief Lupton (DC640) Communications and Support Services: Deputy Chief Justin Green (DC650) EMS: Deputy Chief Jamie Cooper (DC660) Asset Management: Deputy Chief Adam Davis (DC670) Training: Deputy Chief Nicole Pickrell (DC690)

Medical Director's Office: Operational Medical Director: Dr. John Morgan (OMD600) Assistant Operational Medical Director: Al Pacifico PA-C (OMD600B)

Recent System Chiefs: 2025–Present James Williams 2018-2025 Keith Johnson 2010-2018 Keith Brower ?-2010 Joseph Pozzo

Volunteer companies While each volunteer company falls under the Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Department, each is largely responsible for its own administration and operation, on a day-to-day basis. LCFR provides support for volunteer companies through partial funding, training, protocols, and legal aid. While many companies often have the term "Department" in their name, such as Ashburn Volunteer Fire-Rescue Department, the correct term for these organizations would be "Company", to distinguish them from the overall department. Volunteer and career staff provide the same services and generally share the same standards in training and performance of services.

In speech, the physical building a company runs out of will often be referred to as a "station", and the organizational entity is often referred to as a "company". This is to help distinguish between companies that have multiple buildings/stations (such as Sterling Fire – stations 611, 618 and 624 and Sterling Rescue – stations 615, 625 and 635, Ashburn Fire and Rescue – stations 606 and 622, Leesburg Fire – stations 601 and 620), or mainly career staffed stations (such as Lucketts 610 and Philomont 608 which have some volunteer assistance, or Kirkpatrick Farms 627, Moorefield 623, Loudoun Heights 626, and Dulles South 619, which are completely career-staffed), from all other organizations with only a single building, which can be as easily referenced as company or station.

Each volunteer company draws its members primarily from the local community. While most volunteers join the company in their area, it is not uncommon for some members to run at different companies, depending on that individual's schedule, interests, or personality as well as the membership options offered by the individual company.

The membership of volunteer companies in the LC-CFRS system are usually headed by a Board of Directors (BOD). Sitting on the board will be members of the community as well as senior officers from the company. Under the BOD, are the two branches of a volunteer company, the Administrative side and the Operations side. At the head of each wing are the President and Fire/Rescue Chief, respectively. The President's Administrative side will see to the day-to-day functioning of the company, finances, support, and paperwork. Under the president are usually a vice president, secretary, treasurer, committee directors, and a Trial Board. The operations wing staff apparatus, respond to emergencies, train, and are largely the public face of a company. Under the Fire or Rescue Chief, depending on the nature and size of the company, there will be an assistant chief, deputy chiefs, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, engineers, crew chiefs (also called officers/attendants-in-charge), and then the firefighters and EMTs. The number, and type, of officers in a company depends largely on its size, with a small company having as few as five operational officers (not counting crew chiefs) and four administrative officers, or as many as fifteen officers in a larger company (not including Crew Chiefs). For example, Purcellville Volunteer Fire Company has one chief, one assistant chief, two captains and two lieutenants, but neither deputy chiefs nor sergeants. However, Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company has three captains and six lieutenants, in addition to other positions. From a summer 2017 reorganization approved by Chief Brower, career and volunteer officers up to captain are equivalently ranked, with career battalion chiefs being equivalent to an individual company chief, and career officers higher than battalion chief outranking all volunteer officers.

Currently, with the exception of Purcellville Rescue (CO. 14) and the stations that maintain 24/7 career staff (irrelevant of partial volunteer support, such as 8 and 10), every company in LC-CFRS is split in some way between career staff during the day (0600-1800) and volunteer staff during the night (1800-0600), with weekend coverage varying depending on company. For instance, Lovettsville Fire & Rescue, Round Hill, Hamilton, Lucketts, Philomont, Arcola, Aldie, maintains 24/7 coverage, while Purcellville Fire (CO. 2) continues the career/volunteer split shift throughout the entire week, including the weekend. Sterling Rescue manages three stations, one of the stations is staffed by the volunteers 24/7 (Station 25) and the other station is staffed by volunteers evenings and weekends, with a cooperative agreement for career staffing 24 hours at Station 35.

Area served

The Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Department helps protects an area as far east as Fairfax County, Virginia, west to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Clark County, VA, north to the Potomac River and Frederick County, MD, and south past Route 50 to Route 620 – Braddock Road and the counties of Fauquier and Prince William, VA.

Mutual-Aid

As a result of the mutual-aid agreements in place in by Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in the Washington Metropolitan Area, a standard numbering system was put into place for area fire and rescue departments. All units have a 3-4 digit designator, with the first digit denoting what agency the unit is from.

000 series Washington, D.C. 100 series Arlington County, Virginia (includes City of Falls Church) 200 series City of Alexandria, Virginia