The Fire and Rescue Department Business Services are under the direction of Assistant Fire Chief Daryl L. Louder. Business Services is responsible for direction and oversight of the following administrative divisions: Fiscal Services, Support Services, and Fire Prevention. In addition, the Planning Section and the Public Affairs and Life Safety Education Section as well as the liaison functions to the county’s Department of Public Safety Communications are part of Business Services.

These functional areas provide the internal infrastructure for the department in the areas of budget, finance, resource management, logistics, facility management, information technology, fire inspections, fire investigations, strategic planning, communications, and apparatus. These support functions ensure that field operations have the resources they need to respond to the front-line operational and response needs of this 24/7 operation.

The Fire Prevention Division is tasked with enforcing the Virginia and Fairfax County Fire Prevention Codes through education, inspections, investigations, and engineering evaluations. The Division conducts plans reviews; monitors tests on fire protection systems in buildings; oversees annual re-testing of fire protection systems in existing buildings; investigates the cause of fires, explosions and hazardous materials releases; and provides support to the National Response Team using the Accelerant Detection Canine.

The Public Affairs and Life Safety Education Section provides fire prevention awareness and educates the public through community-based events such as Celebrate Fairfax, Fire Prevention Week Open House, and town hall meetings. The Section promotes popular children and senior citizen programs such as Risk Watch and Project S.A.F.E. (Students Acknowledge Fire Education) which allows firefighters and life safety staff to visit virtually all third-grade classrooms within the county. The Section also responds to all media queries and is responsible for publications.