The Virginia State Firefighters Association, founded in 1886, has long served as the champions of Virginia’s fire service organizations and personnel. With more than 9,000 members across the Commonwealth, the VSFA works to provide for better and affordable fire protection in Virginia by advocating for legislative action to benefit Virginia fire departments, rescue squads and support Virginia’s emergency responders. The VSFA works to preserve the heritage and value of the volunteer fire service while bridging relations as organizations expand to become combination career and volunteer services or evolve to become all career fire departments. We also serve fire brigades that protect Virginia’s critical infrastructures, installations, and historic landmarks.
The VSFA advocates for legislation, training, and resources to permit Virginia’s fire service and rescue squad to better protect the communities they serve; thus, the VSFA is “for the people’s good.” The VSFA also works to provide social, supportive programs for Virginia firefighters and such as Line-of-Duty-Death benefit, educational scholarships.
The annual conference/expo presents a great opportunity for firefighters from all over Virginia to meet, make new friends, and catch up with old friends while influencing the business of the VSFA and gaining training in pertinent topics of interest to the fire service community at large. A popular component of the conference/expo is the contests and truck rodeo.
The VSFA serves as a trusted agent, collaborating with other fire/emergency service organizations at the state and national levels, working on the issues that affect all firefighters, such as safety, fundraising, building capabilities, improved fire and life safety codes.
The VSFA communicates with its members by several means: via district representatives, who carry messages from the member organizations in the political jurisdictions they cover to the executive leadership of the Association, and who also share news from the VSFA with those same organizations; via a magazine, The Virginia Firefighter, that brings stories about Virginia’s fire service to member organizations; and via the world wide web, at www.vsfa.org.
We invite you to explore more about the VSFA on this website, and to join us in protecting Virginia’s rich fire service history while building a stronger VSFA to provide higher levels of service and greater value to Virginia’s firefighters now and into the future.