About the Founder
Built by a first responder, for first responders.
Rescue 712 didn't come from a software company. It came from more than three decades in Kentucky's fire, EMS, and search-and-rescue community.
Rescue 712 didn't come from a software company. It came from more than three decades in Kentucky's fire, EMS, and search-and-rescue community.
I'm Melanie Hilliard — a Kentucky firefighter, EMT, and Search & Rescue coordinator who spent years managing teams, training, and missions the hard way. Rescue 712 is the tool I wish I'd had.
I've served as a certified Kentucky Firefighter (I & II, 400-hour) and EMT since the mid-1990s, with technical-rescue training across vehicle extrication, rope, trench, and swift-water rescue, plus hazardous-materials response. I'm trained through the National Incident Management System and Incident Command System (ICS 100–800).
From 2007 to 2009 I served as the Search and Rescue Program Coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, coordinating statewide search operations for missing persons across terrain that ranged from wilderness to disaster zones. I built response protocols, managed the recruitment, training, and readiness of SAR personnel, and ran the logistics of getting the right people and resources to the right place under pressure. Over the years I've also served in Kentucky SAR leadership — state association, county coordination, and K9 search — and as a volunteer firefighter/EMT with departments including Black Mudd, Harrods Creek, Kirksville, and Campbellsburg.
Alongside the field work, I've spent my career in technology. I hold an A.A.S. in Computer Science Programming along with Microsoft Certified Professional and Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer credentials, and I've worked for years as a software and web developer. That combination — a first responder who also writes software — is exactly why Rescue 712 exists. I know what a readiness board should tell you at 2 a.m., what an ICS form has to capture, and why your software can't quit the moment the internet does.
I also hold a Master of Arts in Human Services Counseling: Crisis Response & Trauma from Liberty University and a Bachelor's in Psychology from Waldorf University — a background that shapes how Rescue 712 treats the people behind every record.
— Melanie Hilliard, Founder, Rescue 712
Three decades in the field, informing every screen.
KY Firefighter I & II (400-hour) and EMT. Vehicle extrication, rope, trench, and swift-water rescue; hazmat response.
KY Emergency Management SAR Program Coordinator. State SAR association leadership, county coordination, and K9 search.
NIMS / ICS trained (100, 200, 300, 400, 700, 800) — the same framework Rescue 712's ICS tools are built around.
A.A.S. Computer Science Programming. Microsoft Certified Professional & Solutions Developer. Career software and web developer.
M.A. Human Services Counseling: Crisis Response & Trauma (Liberty). B.S. Psychology (Waldorf).
Everything a SAR team needs — members, gear, training, and missions — in one place, on your own machine, ready with or without a signal.
Your mission shouldn't stop because the internet does.
Real support, from the person who built it.
When you reach out, include the email address on your license or order and a short description of what you're seeing (a screenshot helps). I'll get back to you as quickly as I can.