Both the oilmen and the citizens of Petrolia were keenly aware of the danger of fire. For the first twenty years this densely populated town was made entirely of wooden structures. Everywhere around these buildings there was oil, either in containers or spilled in the ditches and mud. The Great Fire in the summer of 1867 graphically demonstrated the destructive potential of this highly combustible environment.
The fire department was, understandably, an important institution in Petrolia. This photograph shows the firefighters in 1876. At one point there were three companies of volunteers who were paid a small honorarium and outfitted with uniforms and equipment. The main fire hall, seen behind the firefighters in this photograph, was a frame building which originally housed the municipal offices on its second floor. The threat of fire was so great in these early days that the Clerk-Treasurer of the town took the account books home with him every night. In the late 1880s the fire department was provided with an up-to-date fire hall complete with a twenty-one-metre hose drying tower in the new town hall. A second brick fire hall was built in the east end of town at about the same time.
