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Alexandria Fire Chief applauds proposed shift to 46-hour department workweek

Published January 13, 2026 at 3:45PM

Alexandria Fire Chief Felipe Hernandez, Jr. speaks at the 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Alexandria's Market Square, Sept. 11, 2025 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria Fire Department Chief Felipe Hernandez Jr. has expressed approval for an agreement between the city and the department’s union to reduce AFD’s workweek from 49 to 46 hours.

Hernandez says he’s on a mission to eventually reduce the workweek for his first responders to a 42-hour industry standard. Already this year, AFD has shifted from a 56-hour workweek to 49 hours, a move that was lauded by the International Association of Firefighters Local 2141, the union representing the Fire Department.

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Alexandria leaders mark 9/11 anniversary with call for unity, civility

By James Cullum

Published September 11, 2025 at 12:15PM

Alexandria's Joint Public Safety Honor Guard at the 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Alexandria's Market Square, Sept. 11, 2025 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria leaders commemorated the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Thursday, Sept. 11, and reflected on the personal and societal impacts that followed.

Mayor Alyia Gaskins was joined by Sheriff Sean Casey, Fire Chief Felipe Hernandez, Jr., and Police Chief Tarrick McGuire onstage at Market Square in front of City Hall (301 King Street). Gaskins urged the audience to “remember the lives lost on 9/11 and to look forward with hope and a call to action for peace and a better world.”

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PHOTOS: Thousands gather for Alexandria’s 276th Birthday Bash at Oronoco Bay

By James Cullum

Published July 13, 2025 at 6:15AM | Updated July 14, 2025 at 10:29AM

The grand finale of Alexandria's birthday celebration at Oronoco Bay Park, July 12, 2025 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria celebrated its 276th and the U.S.’s 249th birthday in style along the Potomac River at Oronoco Bay Park on Saturday (July 12).

Thousands attended the annual event. For about four hours, the park was turned into a maze of beach blankets, lawn chairs, and barefoot kids with lightsabers and bubble guns. Flanked onstage by City Council and city staff, Mayor Alyia Gaskins and Poet Laureate Maria Cristina Donoso made brief remarks before the program was turned over to the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, which wrapped up in time for a spectacular fireworks show (see video below).

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Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins and City Council sworn into office amid ‘backdrop of deep uncertainty’

By James Cullum

Published January 3, 2025 at 11:20AM

Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins, with her family, takes the oath of office, Jan. 2, 2025 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins and the new City Council were sworn into office on Thursday (Jan. 2), ushering in a new era of city governance with the new year.

Gaskins is the first Black woman to be elected mayor of the city. She stood alongside her husband and two children and took the oath of office from Clerk of the Court Greg Parks onstage at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center (4915 E. Campus Drive) at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria campus.

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Alexandria’s new Fire Chief says he’ll be on the job for a ‘very long time’

By James Cullum

Published August 8, 2024 at 3:45PM

(Left to right) Interim Police Chief Raul Pedroso, Fire Chief Felipe Hernandez Jr., and Sheriff Sean Casey at Alexandria's 275th birthday celebration along the waterfront in Old Town, July 13, 2024 (staff photo by James Cullum).jpg

Alexandria’s new Fire Chief Felipe Hernandez isn’t planning on making any job changes any time soon.

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PHOTOS: Alexandria’s 275th birthday celebration on the waterfront

By James Cullum

Published July 15, 2024 at 9:55AM | Updated July 15, 2024 at 12:29PM

Alexandria's 275th birthday celebration along the waterfront in Old Town, July 13, 2024 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Cupcakes, music and fireworks punctuated Alexandria’s 275th birthday on Saturday.

It was a clear night for a party at Oronoco Bay Park (100 Madison Street) along the Potomac River. Mayor Justin Wilson and city leaders spoke onstage before handing out thousands of birthday cupcakes.

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Alexandria Mayor admonishes Vice Mayor for using picture with former fire chief in campaign mailer

By James Cullum

Published June 12, 2024 at 10:30AM | Updated June 12, 2024 at 2:15PM

Mayor Justin Wilson speaks at the City Council meeting on June 11, 2024 (via City of Alexandria)

Outgoing Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson publicly criticized a mailer for Vice Mayor Amy Jackson‘s mayoral campaign that used a photo of former Fire Chief Corey Smedley with her at a city event.

Wilson said at the end of last night’s City Council meeting that the integrity of the city government is at stake, and that it should be insulated from the “vagaries of politics to the extent possible.” Without calling out Jackson by name, he described the mailer and said that former Chief Smedley did not give his permission to be in the ad.

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Alexandria’s Interim Fire Chief stops plan to replace fire engines with ambulances

By James Cullum

Published May 20, 2024 at 2:30PM

Alexandria Interim Fire Chief Jim Schwartz has put a departmental redeployment on hold that would have replaced fire engines with ambulances.

Former Alexandria Fire Department Chief Corey Smedley announced his AFD Forward plan in September. The plan would have replaced fire engines at Station 204 (900 Second Street) in Old Town North and Station 205 (1210 Cameron Street) in Rosemont. Using 2022 data, AFD found that 72% of their calls for service (out of more than 27,000 incidents) were medical and rescue-related, while just 15% were fire alarm and fire-related.

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Alexandria is developing a public safety and event services plan for new arena at Potomac Yard

By James Cullum

Published January 22, 2024 at 3:30PM | Updated January 22, 2024 at 4:26PM

Rendering of outdoor plaza at Monumental Arena development (image courtesy of JBG SMITH)

Alexandria doesn’t have the resources to adequately cover the public safety aspect of the proposed Potomac Yard arena and entertainment district, sources in the Alexandria Police Department and Sheriff’s Office told ALXnow.

The city currently does not have the resources to cover the addition of the arena and entertainment district at Potomac Yard. The Alexandria Police Department has just over 300 officers, the Sheriff’s Office has around 165 deputies and the Fire Department has about 300 fire and rescue personnel.

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‘I’ve done what I could do for the City of Alexandria,’ says retiring Fire Chief Corey Smedley

By James Cullum

Published December 6, 2023 at 2:05PM | Updated December 6, 2023 at 3:03PM

Alexandria Fire Chief Corey Smedley (on left) and Sheriff Sean Casey at the George Washington Birthday Parade in Old Town, Feb. 20, 2023 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Mutual respect, growth, and an ability to be vulnerable: That’s the kind of relationship retiring Alexandria Fire Chief Corey Smedley wants with his next job, wherever that might be.

Smedley says he wants purpose, not a position, and that he’d like for the right opportunity to find him.

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JUST IN: Alexandria Fire Chief Corey Smedley is retiring in January

By James Cullum

Published November 30, 2023 at 11:40AM | Updated November 30, 2023 at 3:39PM

Fire Chief Corey Smedley at Alexandria's birthday celebration at Oronoco Bay Park, July 10, 2022. (staff photo by James Cullum)

Updated at 11:45 a.m. Alexandria Fire Chief Corey Smedley announced his retirement today, and that he will leave the top job on Friday, Jan. 12.

After more than three years at the helm of the department, the 51-year-old Smedley did not say what his next move would be after his retirement. He’s the city’s first permanent Black fire chief, and led the department through the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as negotiated the AFD first-ever collective bargaining agreement with the fire department’s union.