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 and in enforcing the laws relative thereto. The forester may designate not […]
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 higher, the forest warden, within the limits of funds appropriated […]
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 such owners or […]
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 more of […]
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 engineers of the fire department or of […]
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 chapter thirty-one, […]
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 persons in their department or companies […]
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 other officer makes a […]
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 by the town at an […]
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 department. The chief shall be appointed by the selectmen, and […]
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 they deem necessary, and fix their compensation in an amount […]
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 cities.
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 unit has been certified by the department of fire services. Nothing […]
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 appointed in their stead; may, for cause, remove an engineer, after […]
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 engines, hose and hook and ladder carriages, and constitute such companies […]
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 use of the company.
