ACFR adding a new member to its team

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Emily Pelliccia started volunteering with the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad as a student at the University of Virginia. Now, with 28 years of experience, Albemarle County Fire Rescue is happy to welcome Pelliccia as deputy chief of Community Risk and Resilience.

“I was hired for this section that’s called the Community Risk and Resilience Section, which is a part of the department that focuses on analyzing and looking at the big picture of what all the risks are in the community,” Pelliccia said. “I spent my first day really just getting to know the people in this section.”

A part of the section’s work involves establishing partnerships with law enforcement and social services.

“The transition has been rather smooth, and I’m just really excited because she comes to us with lots of community connections and has a good heart for this business,” Chief Dan Eggleston said.

Chief Eggleston and Deputy Chief Pelliccia say ACFR is starting something new with her on board.

“A clear challenge is the rise in mental health and behavioral health emergencies, and we’re looking at how we respond to those and we’re developing an alternative response model,” Pelliccia said.

They say it will take help from Region Ten and UVA Health to respond to emergencies in the best way possible.

“We’re really excited to start working on a response model that’s different than what we’ve had in the past. One that involves both the fire service leadership, from the Department of Social Services, as well as the police department, a multifaceted group that goes out and models our response to the crisis at hand,” Eggleston said.

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