Cardinal News has launched a months-long reporting project examining the challenges facing volunteer fire departments across Southwest and Southside Virginia and, importantly, the solutions communities are developing to sustain these critical public safety services.
The project, “Path to Solutions: How rural volunteer firefighters are ensuring their own survival so they can be there for us,” focuses on declining volunteerism, rising costs, changing emergency call volumes, and limited resources while highlighting innovative approaches being pursued by departments and local governments. Cardinal News has already examined efforts ranging from youth recruitment programs and evolving training models to equipment donations between departments. The project is informed in part by surveys of volunteer firefighters and residents about the challenges facing their local departments.
Read and follow Cardinal News’ Path to Solutions project
The project closely aligns with a longstanding VACo priority: ensuring that counties have the resources necessary to provide reliable fire and emergency medical services to their residents. VACo’s Legislative Program supports additional state resources for fire and EMS coverage across the Commonwealth, reflecting the growing fiscal and workforce pressures counties face in maintaining these essential services.
Those pressures are explored in detail in an August 19 Cardinal News article, “Funding for Virginia’s fire service is insufficient, studies show. There are ideas for how to change that.” The article provides an accessible overview of how Virginia funds fire services, the strains facing local departments, and potential policy solutions identified through recent state studies.
Read Cardinal News’ article on Virginia fire service funding
The numbers illustrate the significant imbalance in the current funding partnership. According to the article, approximately 97 percent of funding for fire and EMS response in Virginia comes from local governments, compared with approximately 2 percent from the state and 1 percent from federal sources. At the same time, approximately 71 percent of Virginia fire departments are volunteer departments. State support is primarily generated through the Fire Programs Fund’s 1 percent insurance premium surcharge and a vehicle registration fee supporting EMS programs. The rate of the Fire Programs Fund surcharge has not increased since 1995.
These findings reinforce concerns identified through Virginia’s recent statewide examinations of fire and EMS needs. The 2023 Fire and EMS Needs Assessment found that emergency call volume had increased dramatically while volunteer participation declined and state funding failed to keep pace. VACo staff and county representatives participated in that effort, which recommended consideration of additional state support for staffing, increases to the Fire Programs Fund, staffing grants, statewide equipment contracts, and loan programs.
A subsequent 2024 study similarly concluded that existing funding is insufficient to meet Virginia’s growing fire and EMS needs and called for a stronger state-local partnership. As highlighted by Cardinal News, potential solutions include increasing existing state revenue streams, providing greater flexibility in how state grants may be used, supporting personnel costs, and establishing state programs modeled on successful federal staffing grants. These options are increasingly important as volunteer departments transition toward combination systems that pair career personnel with volunteers to ensure adequate coverage.
The 2026 General Assembly continued this discussion. Legislation proposing new state assistance for staffing, equipment, and apparatus did not ultimately advance, but lawmakers approved SB 233 (Head), establishing a workgroup to examine the distribution formula for the Fire Programs Fund. As Cardinal News notes, however, changing the distribution of existing resources alone cannot resolve the larger issue if the overall amount of funding remains inadequate.
Recent demand for state assistance further demonstrates the need. For example, the Virginia Department of Fire Programs received approximately $9 million in requests for a new PPE grant program when only $5 million was available.
For rural counties in particular, the stakes are significant. Smaller tax bases, declining volunteer participation, increasing training requirements, rising personnel costs, and rapidly escalating prices for apparatus and protective equipment can make it increasingly difficult to maintain service levels without placing additional pressure on local taxpayers. Cardinal News’ reporting provides an important public-facing look at a challenge county officials and first responders have been raising for several years: maintaining Virginia’s fire and EMS system will require both local innovation and a stronger, sustainable partnership with the Commonwealth.
VACo appreciates Cardinal News’ continued attention to this issue and will continue working with the General Assembly, state agencies, county officials, and fire and EMS stakeholders to advance sustainable solutions. Virginia’s counties remain committed to supporting the volunteers and salaried professionals who answer the call every day, but the Commonwealth must be a meaningful partner in ensuring that localities have the staffing, equipment, training, and resources necessary to protect their communities.
VACo Contact: Jeremy R. Bennett