Virginia · NERIS
NERIS reporting in Virginia
Virginia's fire departments lean volunteer by a wide margin, but its firefighter headcount runs close to even between volunteer and career members. NERIS asks the same reporting questions of both.
Fire departments in Virginia
- Departments in the directory
- 688
- Volunteer departments
- 68%
- Volunteer or combination
- 90%
- Stations
- 1,373
368 of 543 departments that report a department type
490 of 543 departments that report a department type
reported by 538 departments
Across the 539 Virginia departments that report staffing, the directory holds 18,480 volunteer firefighters and 15,294 career firefighters; 55% of those counted are volunteers.
Source: the NERIS public department directory, as mirrored in our departments table on July 28, 2026. Percentages are stated against the number of departments that actually reported the field, which is always shown next to them. Departments that reported nothing are not counted as zero and no figure here is estimated.
Two ratios that don’t agree
Virginia’s directory lists 688 fire departments. Of the 543 that give a department type, 368 come back volunteer, 122 combination, and 53 career: a state that reads solidly volunteer once you count organizations. Count people instead and the lean holds, but it narrows: across the 539 departments that report firefighter staffing, the totals split 18,480 volunteer to 15,294 career, 55% to 45%. Virginia isn’t a state where the department count says one thing and the headcount says the opposite — it’s one where the same lean shows up twice, just nowhere near as lopsided the second time.
Where the 55/45 lives
The 122 combination departments sitting between the 368 volunteer-only and 53 career-only departments are the likely reason the two numbers move apart. A combination department can run a paid crew and a volunteer roster out of the same house, on the same call, which means the person who showed up isn’t guaranteed to be the same kind of firefighter as the person who’s expected to sit down afterward and write the report.
What the rest of the form doesn’t get answered
Participation isn’t even across what Virginia’s departments are asked to fill in. 538 report a station count, listing 1,373 stations at about 2.6 per department, and 539 report staffing; both land close to 78% of the full 688. Only 93, just over 13%, report the population they protect. Whatever else a department here fills in, that’s the field most of them skip.
Test it on one call
None of that needs settling first. Record the last call you ran, the way you’d describe it to the next shift, and read back what came out of it before deciding whether it’s worth doing that way going forward. The trial doesn’t ask for a department code or a NERIS login. An incident you already remember is all it needs.
Worth knowing about Virginia
Virginia has 688 fire departments in the NERIS public directory. Of the 543 that report a department type, 368 are volunteer, 122 are combination, and 53 are career.
Source: snapshot: VA.department_count, VA.by_department_type, VA.departments_with_type_data
Across the 539 Virginia departments that report firefighter staffing, the directory holds 18,480 volunteer firefighters and 15,294 career firefighters — a 55/45 split, far closer than the 68% volunteer share of typed departments alone would suggest.
Source: snapshot: VA.firefighters_volunteer_sum, VA.firefighters_career_sum, VA.departments_with_staffing_data
1,373 stations are reported across 538 Virginia departments — about 2.6 stations for every department that answered the question.
Source: snapshot: VA.station_count_sum, VA.departments_with_station_data
Only 93 of Virginia's 688 departments — just over 13% — report a population-protected figure, versus the roughly 78% that answered the type, station, and staffing questions.
Source: snapshot: VA.departments_with_population_data, VA.department_count, VA.departments_with_type_data, VA.departments_with_station_data, VA.departments_with_staffing_data
What changed
NERIS replaced NFIRS as the federal fire incident reporting standard onFebruary 1, 2026. It is a different shape of report, not a renamed one: modules instead of flat forms, a three-level text hierarchy instead of numeric incident codes, and an API instead of a file you upload.
What actually changed, in detail · NERIS onboarding (FSRI) · Department sign-up
About grant applications
An Assistance to Firefighters Grant application asks a department to describe what it runs and how it's staffed — a different answer for a 53-department career slice than for the 490 Virginia departments carrying some volunteer staff. We don't know whether NERIS reporting factors into AFG eligibility or scoring, and we're not going to guess at a federal grant program's own rules on a vendor page. What holds regardless of that answer: an application is quicker to fill out from reports that are already filed than from a stretch of calls someone still has to reconstruct.
We are a vendor, not a grant advisor. Do not take our word for what any grant program requires. Read the current notice of funding opportunity or ask your state's grant coordinator.
Try it on a real Virginia call
Record one incident, read the report it produces, and decide from there. No account, no card, no call with anyone.
FireMic is a private company. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or recommended by any Virginia state agency, USFA, FSRI, or FEMA. State fire officials do not endorse vendors, and nothing on this page should be read as suggesting otherwise.
Department figures: FireMic Supabase departments table (mirror of the NERIS public department directory, ArcGIS layer 0). Snapshot taken July 28, 2026.