April 1, 2026
VIROQUA Wis. – The City of Viroqua announced the hiring of Josh Brown as a full time Fire Captain for the Viroqua Fire Department with his new role officially beginning on March 2 2026.
The appointment of Brown comes as the department faces rapidly increasing call volumes and a transition into a new facility. Brown brings more than 15 years of dedicated service to the department having initially joined as a volunteer firefighter since 2009, and in 2016 he was promoted to lieutenant. During his tenure he played a key role in training emergency response and leadership within the organization.
Brown is also a recognizable figure in the community as the owner of CrossFit Viroqua. He and his wife Morgan who is a prenatal and pregnancy chiropractor raise their young daughter in the city and operate as local real estate investors. Brown expressed his gratitude for the new role and his eagerness to support the community.
“I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve the City of Viroqua in this full time capacity,” said Brown. “I look forward to working alongside Chief Buros and continuing to support our department and community in times of need.”
Fire Chief Chad Buros praised the selection noting that the department needs strong leadership to handle the evolving demands placed on local emergency responders.
“I am confident Captain Browns experience leadership and deep community ties will be valuable assets as the department continues to respond to increasing call volumes and evolving service demands,” said Buros.
The creation of the full time Fire Captain position was the result of months of intense budget negotiations and strategic planning by city and fire officials,. Last year Buros and City Administrator Nate Torres informed the Public Safety Committee that call volumes had more than doubled in recent years stretching the volunteer force to its absolute limit. A significant driver of this rapid increase was the department’s decision to add an emergency medical responder (EMR) component to assist with local ambulance availability.
Chief Buros recently presented year-end data about ongoing workload placed on the primarily volunteer force. The department responded to 665 calls in 2024 and saw that number rise to 697 calls in 2025. Currently, the department’s responses are split closely between emergency types, with medical calls accounting for approximately 53 percent of the volume (about 372 calls) and fire-related incidents making up the remaining 47 percent (about 325 calls).
While Fire Chief Chad Buros noted in late 2025 that the skyrocketing call rates had finally leveled out to a more consistent pace, city officials do not expect the total volume to decrease. Buros projects that the ongoing residential and commercial expansion across the city and surrounding townships will only continue to drive up demand. He estimates that incoming population growth and new developments—such as the recently completed Main Street Apartments—could add another 75 to 100 calls for service to the department’s annual workload within the next few years.
Torres explained that the volunteer fire department model is struggling nationwide and the city needed to provide relief for the chief who was working around the clock.
“We need to find a way to basically share those responsibilities with another full time individual,” said Torres. “We are properly prioritizing the scarce resources that city and fire department have towards what the fire department city and the townships really need, which is just more trained firefighters and leadership available to serve the community.”
To fund the new captain position the department had to make the difficult choice to eliminate its administrative assistant position during the 2026 budget cycle. Buros explained to the committee last fall that while the administrative role was helpful for paperwork it could not address the critical need for qualified emergency responders on the ground.
“We had to make a hard choice which one what is most important for the department and the community that we serve,” said Buros. “Transitioning over to a fire officer that would have those abilities could also fill in some of the voids that we are losing.”
The financial burden of the new position will be shared across the region. Under a newly updated intergovernmental cooperation agreement the neighboring towns of Viroqua, Jefferson and Franklin will collectively pay 25 percent of the Fire Captain salary, while the City of Viroqua covers the remaining 75 percent.
The hiring of Captain Brown marks the latest major milestone for a department that recently moved into a brand new 26,000 square foot fire station on Nelson Parkway. The multi-million dollar facility was designed to improve firefighter health and accommodate the projected growth of the city and surrounding townships for the next 50 years.
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