CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Fire rescue services have come a long way since Dan Eggleston first volunteered to serve in Chesterfield County in the 1970s, working with his father.

Now, with over 40 years of experience on the job, including the past 23 as Albemarle County Fire Rescue’s chief, Eggleston is retiring, effective at the end of his shift Friday.

“This is a bittersweet moment, it really is,” Eggleston told Cville Right Now. “It’s been an honor. I just love being out there, working in the field with the folks. It’s a wonderful career. I couldn’t have chosen a better one.”

Eggleston’s career has spanned parts of six decades and he’s seen advancements in training and technology that he never could have imagined as a young first responder at the start of his career.

Eggleston pointed to modern defibrillators as a prime example. The current Automated External Defibrillators use artificial intelligence to determine the patient’s status, delivering a shock as needed, performing a range of other diagnostics and transmitting that information to the hospital while the patient is enroute.

It’s a far cry from what Eggleston first worked with.

“We used paddles,” Eggleston said. “We rubbed the gel on. That’s what it was.”

During his time as chief, Eggleston has led the charge on multiple significant fronts, working to improve the safety of county residents in a challenging area. ACFR covers an area of roughly 723 square miles, Eggleston said, a region that includes both urban and remote, rural sections.

The county launched the Human Services Alternative Response Team, dubbed HART, during Eggleton’s time. HART is a specialized unit trained and equipped to handle mental health and drug addiction issues.

Eggleston also led the charge to battle drug overdoses in the county, especially with the rise of fentanyl use, through the administering of Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, which can save the lives of someone experiencing an opioid overdose. His championing of the drug’s use by county first responders has been controversial, but Eggleston believes it aids ACFR in their primary duty – to save lives.

“Narcan is a lifesaving drug,” Eggleston said. “Some people in the community (say) that this is just enabling the addiction. I don’t see it that way. I see it as something that would be a bridge to recovery. If someone’s suffering from cardiovascular disease, we don’t withhold any kind of life saving medication because perhaps that person’s made some bad choices in their previous years.  We try to help them.”

Eggleston has never shied away from controversial stances when it comes to standing up for ways he believes ACFR can make the county safer. He has been a staunch supporter of climate change awareness, even testifying before Congress about the topic.

He has pressed for, and will continue to advocate in his retirement, for the installation of early-warning flood sensors around the county.

“I know that’s such a hot topic politically,” Eggleston said of climate change. “It’s affecting us. We’ve got to be prepared for that.”

For now, Eggleston is preparing for life as something other than a fire rescue chief. An avid motorcyclist, he took a trip through Morocco in the spring and plans similar adventures now that he’ll have a little more free time.

“I think there comes a point in your career when you have to look at the next chapter,” Eggleston said. “It just was the right time.”

Of course, he’s not leaving public service all together. Eggleston said he plans to volunteer with the HART team, and will continue pushing for flood sensors and other climate change preparedness measures in the county.

After so much of his life spent in fire rescue work, and so much that has evolved in that field, Eggleston said he’s told county officials that the next chief needs to be nimble.

“It’s constant change,” Eggleston said. “Our environment’s changing. Our community’s changing. The fire service is changing. So you’ve got to be a change agent in this business. You have to be able to anticipate the change.”