The Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad provides rescue and EMS transport service to the City of Charlottesville, UVA, and some of Albemarle County
CARS is a volunteer rescue squad with over 180 active members. We also have career firefighter/medics from the Charlottesville Fire Department that supplement our staffing during daytime hours on weekdays. The organization is headed operationally by Chief Alex Belgard. Administratively, the department is run by President Virginia Leavell. We are a member of the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads assigned to District I. In 2008, we ran over 12,000 calls and Firehouse Magazine ranked us as the busiest volunteer rescue squad in the country.
CARS operates eight advanced life ambulances (medic units), three advanced life support quick response cars (zone cars), two heavy rescue trucks (squads), a water rescue truck with two boats, a technical rescue truck, a collapse rescue trailer, a command car, a mass causality incident truck and a special events bicycle response team with support trailer. All current apparatus is owned by the department and was purchased primarily with funds raised through donations from our community.
To provide continuously improving high quality emergency medical and special rescue services to the citizens of the Charlottesville, Albemarle and the University of Virginia communities by utilizing the collaborative effort of a diverse team of highly skilled volunteers in alliance with partner agencies.
