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04/25/2023 12:30 PMMadison Hose Company 1, which covers the southern portion of town, is adding a new position to its all-volunteer staff. Fire officials said the staffing changes were necessary for the department to keep pace with response demand, which has increased dramatically in the last two decades.
According to Chief Robert Kyttle, the changes were long overdue to keep pace with the operations and administrative increases of the department.
“In the history of Madison Hose, we have always had four officers, a chief, a captain, and two lieutenants. So, a couple of months ago, we created a new line officer position, and that position is the assistant chief of the department. So now we have five instead of four,” said Kyttle.
Kyttle said the addition of the assistant chief position will help reduce the workload and responsibilities currently tasked to the captain.
“Some of the reasoning for adding that position is that the captain’s job was both operational of the firehouse and administrative. We are trying to lighten that load up of the responsibilities,” Kyttle explained. “The assistant chief was created and is now chief of operations, and the captain’s position is now captain of administration.”
With the new position, Kyttle will remain as chief, and Gregory Carrol will assume the role of assistant chief. Michael Vece will be captain, and the two lieutenants will be Jeffery Young and Darryl Young.
“So far, it is working out very well,” Kyttle said. “It takes a bit of time to adjust to a different position in the department, and right now, we are still in the process of determining the best responsibilities for that position to carry,” according to Kyttle.
Madison Hose and its counterpart, North Madison Firehouse, is an all-volunteer organization. As volunteers, firefighters are often splitting their time between day jobs, family, and work with the department.
“When a call comes in, we drop everything we have to do, and we respond to the scene of the emergency, whether during work days, with families, dinners, holidays, two o’clock in the morning, two o’clock in the afternoon. We are a 24 hour service to the town.”
According to Kyttle, Madison Hose receives more than 600 calls a year. While that number may seem small, as a volunteer force, that means a lot of work. When you factor in the coverage areas that the department covers and the high regularity of emergency calls, the workload is intense, according to Kyttle.
“Our call volume has gone up over the years since I first became a member. We were in the 300s per year when I started, and now we are approaching 600 calls a year. So that is a big change in 20 years,” said Kyttle.
“When you consider that we have to respond to calls on I-95, Hammonasset State Park, we cover Long Island Sound, and with Amtrak running through our town, it’s just simply a busier town than when I was a kid,” Kyttle continued. “There are a lot of things that run through Madison, except an airport.”