Request a Fire Report

City of Madison Fire Department
Attn: Deputy Chief Liza Tatar
314 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI 53703

Phone: (608) 266-1162
Fire Administration Fax: 608-267-1100
Email: Fire

In order to more efficiently process your records release request, we ask that you complete this Records Release Request form. This request shall be answered as soon as practicable.

Fire Report Requests

The supervisor of the Fire Investigation Team is the custodian of records for all fire incident reports. Reports prepared by Company Fire Officers and Fire Investigators are reviewed in preparation for release. There are circumstances where fire reports are not releasable due any of the following criteria:

• Pending Criminal Prosecution
• Active Investigation
• Sensitive nature of the Investigation
• Juvenile record
• Other records involving issues of privacy and reputation, as determined by application of the balancing test
• Information that may disclose investigative techniques
• Identifying confidential informant information

A report may be released, however, you may receive a redacted copy due to a juveniles name or medical information which is contained within the report(s).

Responding to a Fire Report Request

Madison Government Ordinance MG(O) 3.70(6)(a) states: The fulfillment of public records requests is a high priority for the City. Therefore, each custodian, upon request for any record, shall, as soon as practicable and without delay, either fill the request or notify the requester of her/his determination to deny the request in whole or in part and the reasons therefore. If a request may take more than ten (10) business days to process, then the custodian must respond to the requestor within those ten days with an estimate of when such processing shall be completed and an explanation of the reasons supporting that estimate.

Possible Costs for Records Requests

There is a charge of $0.15 per page, plus postage, for mailed or faxed records (there is no charge if total page cost, with postage, is less than $0.50). 

An invoice, if applicable, will be included with a copy of report(s).

There is no charge for emailed records.  

A location fee is only imposed if the cost of locating the records is $50.00 or greater.

If the cost of the record(s) will be $50 or more, the records custodian will request pre-payment from the requestor.