Elk River family's dream home destroyed in fire caused by lightning strike
A lightning strike sparked massive flames and torched a family's dream home on Monday night, leaving them gutted.
Amelia co-anchors the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news Monday through Friday. She's been with the station since 1996. Ten years later, her husband, Frank Vascellaro, joined her as co-anchor. They are the first married couple to co-anchor a news program in the Twin Cities.
Before coming to Minnesota, Amelia anchored the weekend news at WTIC-TV in Hartford, CT. She started her career in Washington, D.C., at WUSA, where she was a reporter trainee. From there, she went to WETM-TV in Elmira, N.Y., where she anchored the weekend newscasts. Then she moved on to WNEP-TV in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. as a reporter and anchor.
Amelia was born in Alexandria, Va. She grew up in a career military family and lived in Virginia, Japan and Texas. She attended Marywood University in Dunmore, Pa.
City Pages editors named her Best Newscaster in the Twin Cities in 2000 and 2013. Readers of The Minnesota Women's Press picked her as their favorite local female television personality.
Amelia and Frank are deeply involved with the community and frequently serve as the master of ceremonies at some of the Twin Cities premier charity events.
They live in Minneapolis with their three kids and two dogs.
A lightning strike sparked massive flames and torched a family's dream home on Monday night, leaving them gutted.
WCCO's great summer road trip is back! To kick things off, AJ Hilton and Amelia Santaniello headed 200 miles north to Deer River in Itasca County.
Our next Goin' to the Lake begins Wednesday with Amelia Santaniello and Erin Hassanzadeh visiting the Cameron-Chetek area of Wisconsin.