In the case of a structure fire, the first question is always how does someone inside get out—that’s as true for rescuers as for rescuees, particularly if a firefighter is injured on the job. Thanks to a donation from the Madison Chamber of Commerce, both volunteer fire departments in town recently purchased equipment designed to help get injured firefighters out of a burning building.

The piece of equipment itself looks fairly simple—it’s a short board on which a firefighter can be placed and quickly carried out of the building. However, the board is unique in that it is shorter than a standard stretcher, making for easy maneuvering around tight corners, and comes equipped with an extra-large carabiner to simplify hooking the firefighter on the board and easy grip points and ropes to help either lift the board or drag the board.

The board will be used by the Rapid Intervention Team (RIT), a team of firefighters deployed for emergency evacuations.

Madison Hose Company No. 1 Chief Robert Kyttle and North Madison Volunteer Fire Company Chief Dave Cone joined together with firefighters from both departments on Nov. 30 at the North Madison firehouse to train firefighters with the board and thank the Chamber for their donation.

“Chief Cone and I wanted to thank the Chamber of Commerce for putting on the Beachcombers night and all of the money they raised they decided to donate to both departments,” said Kyttle. “We collectively agreed to purchase a piece of equipment that wasn’t in our budget plan for this year or anytime soon and we both decided to buy this unit that will help protect both of our departments when we are fighting fires in town.”

Cone said this donation from the Chamber came at just the right time.

“We had a demo of this about six or eight weeks ago and we practiced with it and the sales rep was out and we were thinking, ‘Geez this is a pretty slick-looking piece of equipment and this could be of use to us, wouldn’t it be great is we had some money to go buy the thing?’ and the next thing you know you guys [the Chamber] are calling us, so the timing was perfect…If we need it, it’s going to be very helpful and it is a distinct upgrade from what we have now.”

Madison Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Eileen Banisch said the Beachcombers Night event this summer raised about $3,800 for each volunteer fire department respectively.

“It was a unanimous decision and very easy to make to donate to the fire departments because of what they do for the town,” she said. “It’s very unusual to have such a strong volunteer presence and two great fire departments and we are proud to have you protecting us.”

Banisch said she was glad the departments could buy this equipment, with one important caveat.

“Hopefully you will never have to use this in real life,” she said.