Arlington faces firefighter shortage; Ballston Engine 102 was shut down Sunday, the union says

ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. (7News) — The Arlington County Fire Department is facing a significant staffing shortage, leading to the temporary closure of a Ballston-area fire engine company, according to Arlington Professional Firefightersthe Arlington Firefighters Union.

Sunday, the group posted on X that Engine 102, located on Wilson Boulevard, was out of service due to “unprecedented vacancies and wear and tear.”

“For emergency calls to 911, Engine 102 on Wilson Blvd. will not be available to respond,” the fire group posted.

Friday morning, the group added that last year Engine 102 was the busiest company in Arlington — citing more than 3,400 calls.

On Tuesday, Arlington County President Libby Garvy clarified that Engine 102 was taken out of service between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. the next day due to a lack of staff. However, the other units assigned to Fire Station 2 – including R102, M102 and EMS102 – remained on duty during this time.

“The Arlington County Fire Department, like many of our public safety partners across the region, is experiencing staff shortages. The department is exploring many options to reduce the total number of vacancies,” the agency added.

As of 7 a.m. Monday, Engine 102 is back up and running, firefighters said.

“In reviewing calls and response times, our staff has not seen any impact on service and no degradation of service to the public,” Garvy said. “We are grateful to our first responders for ensuring that the most critical coverage was accomplished during this time.”

“There was nobody else, so the engine company had to go out of business,” said Brian Lynch, president of the Arlington Professional Association of Firefighters and Paramedics, IAFF Local 2800.

Lynch told 7News the department has 35 vacancies.

“So over 10 percent of our people, our positions are vacant,” Lynch said. “We cannot recruit or retain firefighters with compensation as it is currently structured.”

He says the high cost of living has an impact and current salaries at the Arlington County Fire Department are not competitive nationally or regionally.

Plus, he says current firefighters are doing mandatory overtime.

“We have people working up to 72 hours straight, which we’ve never allowed before,” Lynch said.

According to Garvey, the board approved funding for FY25 recruitment and retention efforts, including the following:

$50,000 – one-time funding for a recruitment platform
$75,000 – one recruiting position (1.0 FTE)
$425,000 – Hiring Bonus for Uniformed Firefighters/EMTs/Medics
$1,461,491 – a retention bonus for uniformed employees
$153,060 – family leave overtime funding increases from 10 weeks to 16 weeks.