The two major kinds of Common Council resolutions and reports related to the Fire Department generated by the Committee on Fire are petitions (1856-1917) and Fire Department files (1862-1918). Common Council petitions, defined as petitions by the general public, are divided into three categories: general petitions, petitions for building permits and petitions to build gas and oil tanks. General petitions (1856; 1864; 1871-1875; 1888-1912) include volunteer groups petitioning the Common Council to form or dissolve fire companies. Often constitutions and officers for the companies are included. There are also petitions from groups of citizens requesting the council to correct an injustice or to take action on a request.
Petitions for building permits (1857-1917) include all citizen petitions to build, move, demolish or improve any building within the fire zones of the downtown business district. Citizens were required by law to receive the Council's permission to perform any of the listed acts. Petitions for building gas and oil tanks (1900; 1907; 1911-1917) are dated in the early 1900s. After the invention of the automobile, the demand for more gas and oil stations increased. Because of the fire hazard, the petitions to build then had to be approved by the Common Council.
The Fire Department files are the most numerous of the records. They have been broken down into many subject categories related to the fire department itself. Buildings and Construction (1868-1917) contains any resolutions related to the buildings or construction of fire department buildings. It includes major projects such as cisterns, wells, wagon houses, and fire houses and minor projects such as building repairs and renovations. Equipment (1862-1918) includes bills, reports, purchase and repair of equipment, new technology and anything else that was needed to run a fire department that was not part of construction. It contains utility information for fire department buildings, some information regarding bells, alarm systems and fire alarm boxes, and information regarding horses used in the department.
Finance (1869-1898; 1908) includes general requests for money, reports of budget expenditures for the entire department, yearly requisitions of funds, and bills. Financial items that are clearly bills for equipment only, or construction only, or salaries only are filed under their respective categories. Salaries are included (with names) in the financial requests from 1879 to 1896. Financial reports end in 1896. Instructional Reports (1870-1916) contains reports from the fire chief, requests from the Common Council to carry out or enforce ordinances and other matters and reports from the Fire Committee. It also contains the ordinance for the establishment of a full paid city fire department.
Legal Actions (1895) contains any documents relating to legal actions involving the Common Council and relating to the fire department. Personnel (1866-1906) deals with the names of employees, salaries and anything else to do with the persons who were employed by the fire department. Miscellaneous (1872-1918) includes communications with fire departments from other cities and papers from other La Crosse city departments.
