Several area fire departments received essential firefighting tools as donation from a grateful community on Thursday.
The Wisconsin Masonic Foundation gifted fire suppression tools to six different volunteer fire departments in the Northwoods.
That includes the Pelican Fire Department, and Fire District Alpha.
The tools are thrown into a fire and release a chemical gas to quickly drop the temperature of the blaze.
They said some departments only have a few people to cover over 140 square miles, and these tools can make a world of a difference.
"When you get into these understaffed departments it really helps because they're able to be sent out where a firefighter would have to go in and check the fire, this can be something that prevents them from going into an unsafe circumstance," said Will MacKay, Master Mason.
They said the tools are critical in a time where fire departments are understaffed, and volunteers are hard to come by.
"We're short volunteers, we're short on people that can just direct traffic, you don't have to run into a fire and be that technical on everything, we just need people to do some of those smaller jobs," said Mark Theiler, Firefighter for the Town of Pelican.
They're putting out a call to anyone to help them serve and protect the community.
