Charlottesville Fire Department releases annual report for 2024

A good practice for any government department is to produce a report listing its activities in a given year. This can take many forms and this year the Charlottesville Fire Department has opted to go with a “StoryMap” for its annual report for 2024.

“We invite you to explore the information and reach out if you have questions or comments,” reads the opening statement.

Lesser known is how many people actually take a look at these. A major role of Charlottesville Community Engagement is to increase the amount of information people know about local government and in the spirit of that mission here are some highlights:

• The CFD hired 12 new recruits to bring the total number of employees to 115 with 108 of them sworn personnel.
• A new fire station on the U.S. 250 Bypass is expected to be open in May 2025.
• In its first six months of operation beginning in July, the ANCHOR team responded to 211 service calls. The ANCHOR team assists in situations where someone is having a mental health crisis.
• The StoryMap has links to letters from various personnel including Chief Michael Thomas.
• The FY2025 budget for CFD was $20,188,484.
• CFD responded to 7,884 calls for service in 2024, down 0.3 percent from 2023.
• One new employee hired in 2024 was a technician to manage medical supplies to comply with new federal guidelines on their exchange between different health care providers.

Before you go: This story was originally sent out in the April 17, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and posted the next morning to this website. There is somewhat of a reason for this, and it has to do with producing the audio edition of the newsletter. This story did not make the cut, but it still has interesting information within.