Chapter 48

Section 1. Selectmen may annually, in March or April, appoint firewards, and shall forthwith give them notice thereof. Whoever neglects, within seven days after such notice, to file with the town clerk his acceptance or refusal of the office shall, unless excused by the selectmen…

Section 10. The forest warden may appoint deputies to assist him in his duties and may discharge them; and he or his deputies may, if in their judgment there is danger from a forest fire, employ assistance or require any person in their town between the ages of eighteen and fifty…

Section 11. Whoever, without sufficient cause, wilfully refuses or neglects to assist or to allow the use of his property as required by the preceding section, shall be punished by a fine of not less than five nor more than one hundred dollars and may also be imprisoned for not m…

Section 12. Payment shall be made to forest wardens, their deputies, and persons assisting them, and for property used under their direction at a forest fire, at a rate prescribed by the town or, in default of its action thereon, by the selectmen. No such payment shall be made un…

Section 13. No person shall set, maintain or increase a fire in the open air at any time except by permission, covering a period not exceeding two days from the date thereof, granted by the forest warden or chief of the fire department in cities and towns, or, in cities having su…

Section 15. The forester, the state fire warden or any duly authorized assistant, the forest warden in a town or the official performing the duties of a forest warden in a city, or any duly appointed deputy forest warden, the director of the division of fisheries and wildlife, an…

Section 16. For the purposes of this section and section sixteen A, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings: ''Forest or woods road'', any permanently maintained road that is not a highway, the primary use of which is access to forest lands for the purpo…

Section 16A. Every owner, lessee, tenant or occupant of lands, or their agents or employees, or any such person or entity holding rights or interest in said lands or the timber thereon, or of any rights or interests therein, except electric, telephone and telegraph companies, who…

Section 17. Any person who cuts or causes to be cut trees, brush or undergrowth within the limits of any highway, shall dispose of the slash and brush then and there resulting from such cutting in such a manner that the same will not remain on the ground within the limits of said…

Section 18. Electric, telephone and telegraph companies which, at the time of erecting their transmission lines, cut or cause to be cut brush, wood or timber on land which borders upon woodland of another, or upon a highway or railroad location, shall dispose of the slash caused …

Section 19. The forester, or any duly authorized assistant, the state fire warden and the forest wardens in cities and towns are hereby authorized to inspect wood or lumber operations, and also the rights of way of electric, telephone and telegraph companies' transmission lines, …

Section 2. If a fire breaks out, the firewards shall immediately repair thereto, and shall wear a suitable badge of office.

Section 20. Violation of any provision of sections 16 to 18, inclusive, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $250 nor more than $2,500.

Section 21. Whoever operates in or adjacent to forest or grasslands any equipment or vehicle which burns any spark producing material as fuel, unless the same is provided with a suitable spark arrester approved by the United States Department of Forestry, shall be punished by a f…

Section 22. The forester or his assistants or the state fire warden may inspect all appliances described in the preceding section to determine if they are provided with suitable spark arresters.

Section 23. Towns may construct, in co-operation with other towns or with the commonwealth, forest fire observations towers, the situation and construction of which shall be subject to the direction of the forester.

Section 24. Money appropriated by a town under section eleven of chapter forty, for the prevention of forest fires, and all fines received under sections eleven, thirteen and twenty-six of this chapter and section nine of chapter two hundred and sixty-six shall be expended by the…

Section 25. Except as provided in section twenty-four, every forest warden shall have sole charge of the extinguishment of forest fires in his city or town. He shall investigate the causes and extent of forest fires and the injury done thereby, and shall report thereon to the for…

Section 26. Whoever wilfully and maliciously tears down or destroys any notice posted under the preceding section shall be punished by a fine of $100.

Section 27. Forest wardens, their deputies and assistants, foresters, chief fire wardens, district fire wardens and forest fire patrolmen shall not be liable for trespass when engaged in the performance of their duties under this chapter or chapter one hundred and thirty-one, one…

Section 28. The state fire warden appointed under section five of chapter twenty-one shall aid and advise the forest wardens and their deputies in towns and the municipal officers exercising the functions of forest wardens in cities in preventing and extinguishing forest fires an…

Section 28B. When the forest fire hazard, as determined by the director of the division of forestry, according to the United States Forest Service standard of classification of fire danger, or its equivalent in any future classification, shall reach a burning index of fifty or hi…

Section 28C. When, in the judgment of the director of the division of forests and parks, the forest fire hazard is such as to require the use of forest fire patrols in any town, all forest lands therein shall be closed to all persons except the owners thereof and the tenants of s…

Section 3. Three or more firewards present at a place which is in immediate danger from fire, or if there are not three of them present the selectmen or the mayor and the aldermen present, or in their absence two or more of the civil officers present, or in their absence two or m…

Section 36. Any town which has accepted chapter four hundred and eighty-seven of the acts of nineteen hundred and thirteen, and has a call or part call fire department which now is or may hereafter be subject to chapter thirty-one, may, on the recommendation of the board of engin…

Section 36A. Any town which has not accepted chapter four hundred and eighty-seven of the acts of nineteen hundred and thirteen and shall accept this section by vote of the town at a town meeting, and has a call or part call fire force which now is or may hereafter be subject to …

Section 37. The provisions of section thirty-six or section thirty-six A shall not apply to any town in which the promotion of call men to the permanent or regular force is regulated by a special act relating to such town, nor to Boston.

Section 39. The chief engineer or other officer in charge of a fire department, and the foreman or director of each company where no fire department is established by law, shall annually on or before May first certify to the assessors of their respective towns a list of all perso…

Section 4. If a city by its city council or a town accepts this section or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, the official of a fire department in command at a fire shall have exclusively the power conferred by the preceding section.

Section 40. If such chief engineer or other officer wilfully refuses to make such certificate, he shall forfeit for each person entitled to be so certified not more than five dollars, to the use of such person, or, on complaint, to the use of the town; and if such engineer or oth…

Section 41. The three preceding sections shall be in force only in those towns which adopt the same by vote of their city council or at their annual town meeting, or which have so adopted corresponding provisions of earlier laws. If such adoption is revoked by the city council or…

Section 42. Towns accepting the provisions of this section and sections forty-three and forty-four, or which have accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws may establish a fire department to be under the control of an officer to be known as the chief of the fire departmen…

Section 42A. In towns which accept this section or have accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws there shall be a fire department established under the direction of the selectmen, who shall appoint a chief of the fire department and such other officers and firemen as the…

Section 43. The chief of a fire department shall act as forest warden in all such towns which accept the provisions of either of the two preceding sections, and shall have authority to appoint deputy wardens and fix their compensation subject to the approval of the selectmen.

Section 44. The three preceding sections shall not affect the tenure of office nor apply to the removal of permanent and call members of fire departments in towns which have accepted chapter thirty-one or corresponding provisions of earlier laws. Said sections shall not apply to …

Section 44A. No city or town or the Massachusetts Port Authority or the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency shall contract with a private for-profit firefighting unit to operate within said city or town or on property controlled by said authority or said agency, unless said …

Section 45. The selectmen, except as provided in the three preceding sections, may establish a fire department, and thereafter shall annually, in April, appoint a suitable number of engineers, not exceeding twelve, for one year from the following May first, and until others are a…

Section 46. They shall, immediately after such appointment, notify each of said engineers to meet at a time and place designated. At such meeting the engineers shall choose a chief engineer, a clerk and other necessary officers.

Section 47. The engineers, in the extinguishment of fires, shall exercise the powers of firewards and, in the nomination and appointment of such firefighters as necessary therefor, shall exercise the powers and perform the duties of selectmen. They may appoint such men to the eng…

Section 48. Firefighters may organize companies, elect officers and establish such regulations and by-laws as the board of engineers approve; and may annex penalties for the violation thereof, not exceeding ten dollars for each offence, which may be recovered by the clerk to the …

Section 49. The engineers and all persons appointed by them shall perform the duties, be subject to the liabilities and entitled to the privileges and exemptions of enginemen appointed by selectmen.

Section 5. If such demolition of a building is the means of stopping the fire or if the fire stops before it comes to it, the owner shall be entitled to recover reasonable compensation from the town unless it was the building in which the fire started. Such compensation shall be …

Section 51. A town or the engineers thereof violating any provision of the preceding section shall forfeit not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars.

Section 51A. Each city, town or district shall equip any fire apparatus operated by it with at least three self-contained breathing apparatus, so-called. Such breathing apparatus shall contain a minimum of 30 minutes of air or oxygen and shall be equipped with an audible alarm to…

Section 52. The board of engineers shall have the care and superintendence of fire apparatus and related equipment, buildings, fixtures, and equipment and all pumps, reservoirs for water and apparatus owned by the town and used for extinguishing fires and shall cause the same to …

Section 53. They may make regulations as to the carrying of fire, firebrands, lighted matches or other ignited materials openly in the streets or thoroughfares of their town, or of such parts thereof as they may designate, or as to prohibiting owners or occupants of buildings wit…

Section 54. They may make regulations, consistent with law, for their own government and for the conduct of citizens at fires, and annex penalties for violation thereof not exceeding $200 for each offence, to be recovered by the chief engineer and appropriated to the improvement …

Section 55. A town which has established a fire department may vote to fix the term of office for the members of such department at one year from a designated day, and may at the same time determine the then current term of office of members of fire departments; but no term shall…

Section 56. Except in towns subject to section fifty-nine, any city by ordinance and any town by by-law may establish the hours of labor of the members of its fire department.

Section 57. Subject to section fifty-nine, members of the fire department of every city which accepted chapter five hundred and forty-six of the acts of nineteen hundred and twelve or chapter ninety-seven of the General Acts of nineteen hundred and fifteen, shall be excused from …