Madison’s newest and biggest fire station to open today
Fire Station 14 will serve southeastern Madison
MADISON, Wis. — In the case of an emergency, seconds matter. For years, people living on Madison’s southeast side had to wait between 10 to 15 minutes for emergency crews to respond. That response time will be cut drastically starting today, with the official opening of Fire Station 14.
Fire officials call the opening of the new station a big deal for the department in many ways. The previously-lengthy response times to the southeast end of Madison weren’t meeting the city’s standard.
That will change starting today, Dec. 27, when crews will be able to respond to calls in southeastern Madison and Blooming Grove in five minutes or less.
Fire Station 14 will now be the largest station in the city: in part, because it will also double as a training facility. Currently, new recruits train at Madison College’s Truax campus, but that will change in the future.
“Our plan is to move our next training recruit academy out here,” explained Clay Christenson, Madison Fire Department’s assistant chief. “It has a nice community classroom attached to this building, and hopefully, over the next few years, we can keep adding additional training props.”
Fire Station 14 is the culmination of years of planning and 10 months of construction. While Madison fire officials’ request to add an ambulance to the station was denied in the 2019 budget, Christenson says the fire rigs do have EMS capabilities and the common council did approve adding a paramedic on staff 24-7.
The department is also making multiple cancer-prevention efforts with the new station. Those include special washing and drying machines for gear and a detoxification sauna that will help firefighters sweat out cancer-causing chemicals.
The station will be fully staffed and ready to take its first call stating at 7 a.m. The station is located at 3201 Dairy Drive.
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