Madison has fourteen (14) fire stations serving the city. Each day (24-hour shift), there are a total of 86 on-duty personnel that make up the fire suppression companies, ambulances, and special teams of the fire department. The MFD's special teams consist of Lake Rescue, Hazardous Incident, Heavy Urban Rescue, and Fire Investigation.

All on-duty personnel are under the supervision of one Officer In Charge (OIC). The OIC is on duty for 24-hour periods and is responsible for directing all operations and emergencies. OICs are readily identifiable at fire scenes as they are positioned inside the Command Vehicle with the Chief's Aide. At all emergency incidents, department procedure calls for a command post to be set up at the scene. The command post is responsible for the overall direction of emergency activities.