CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Albemarle County’s new fire rescue chief said he’s fortunate to have a consultant’s study as a blueprint guiding the future of ACFR, and he can work quickly to help implement measures in very short order because of knowledge and relationships that exist.

David Puckett, who spoke to the media Thursday during an introductory press conference, has been working at Albemarle Fire Rescue for 27 years, the last 13 as Deputy Chief of Operations under retired chief Dan Eggleston.

He said the first priority that needs to be addressed, as the report notes, is staffing.

Puckett said he’s proud of the department’s growth from just nine firefighters when he arrived 27 years ago to the current number of 200.

Nevertheless, he said of his priorities, “The first thing is the staffing.”

“We do have a staffing shortage where we actually have to reduce services at some of the rural stations occasionally, and that’s one thing we would love to fix and have full staff at all stations.”

Second on his list is the report recommendation that the county change the way it zones its emergency areas.

“Currently, it’s just rural and development,” Puckett said. “They are recommending a more phased approached where maybe it’s a urban, suburban, rural, and remote where we have some areas of the county that are mountainous where almost nobody lives there and it’s hard to get to.”

“I think that will allow us to be more transparent about the service we’re providing to those different areas and so the community knows what to expect, and then it also allows us to hold ourselves accountable in meeting those standards,” Puckett said.

With staffing the top priority and the current level at 200, he does not believe there’s a specific number to meet “full staff”.

“I don’t think we need or should land on a number of firefighters, and I think the service we’re trying to provide and the gaps we have drives the firefighter number,” he said.

“And we have to keep in mind to on the career and volunteer side, we probably have a total of really 500 firefighters in the system career and volunteer and so those numbers can go up or down depending on how many volunteers we have and when they’re available.”

He said, “So we may have to help supplement them or they may be really robust and we can use career firefighters in other ways.”

Puckett added one of the he’s always been passionate about is the career development program “giving people a roadmap on how to build a career as far as what skill sets they need and how to develop so they’re ready for positions as they open”.

“We’re definitely going to need them to fill those rolls as we’ve grown fast, that’s the hard part is trying to get people the experience and skills they need to step up into those positions,” Puckett said. “If I can leave with nothing else, I think it’s having a really good career development program where people feel like they are ready for those leadership positions.”