The Richland Center Fire Department has a key box program for businesses and residences that are interested in allowing the fire department to have keys to their building. Keys to your building are kept in a secure box that is attached to your building, and only the fire department has a master key to open the key box. The key box brand chosen by the RCFD is Supra Safe. If you are interested in having a key box on your property please contact the fire department for the order form that you will need to order your key box. This form has the information on it that Supra will need to key the box to our master key.

There are both residential and commercial versions of the key box to choose from. Having a key to your building will allow the fire department to gain entry in case of a fire or other emergency without doing damage to the entrance door. Of course if there is a fire and we need to get in your building to extinguish it we do have tools to do that. Many buildings have fire alarm/detection systems, automatic suppression systems, or both. These systems sometimes cause  responses by the department that may be actual or false in nature. On site keys would allow entrance by fire crews to investigate and mitigate the situation, without waiting for a key holder to arrive to gain us access into the building.

In the past the fire department would hold onto keys on our first out engine. That in reality is a false sense of security as that unit may be out on another call in the time of need, The RCFD no longer carries any keys other than the master key needed to gain entrance into the key box. This key is carried on multiple engines to insure its availability in the time of need.

In 2015 the Richland Center City Council passed an ordinance that requires key boxes on certain types of facilities. The City has taken the lead on this by also requiring a key box on all City owned buildings.