§ 2-12-7 Exemption of attended fires.
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The provisions of § 2-12-6 do not apply to fires set or maintained in
accordance with regulations approved by the director of the department of
environmental management or his or her duly authorized representative, or to
any act that may be done under authority given to any incorporated fire
district or under the supervision of a fire chief or senior officer in which
case the person requesting supervision shall pay for the actual time required
for the supervision, to the city or town fire chief or senior officer, the
prevailing rate per hour customarily paid to supervisory employees on
construction work in the area or to burning in attended incinerators,
fireplaces or rubbish burners, provided that time of burning and location of
the incinerator, fireplace or rubbish burner is such that fires from any
incinerator, fireplace or rubbish burner will not endanger any forest and
pasture, brush, sprout, waste or cutover woodland or buildings. The provisions
of § 2-12-6 shall not apply to fire chiefs and senior officers, the
director of environmental management or any member of the department of
environmental management authorized by him or her, when engaged in the
discharge of their duties under this chapter, or to any incorporated volunteer
fire company authorized in writing by the director of environmental management
while engaged in prevention burning. Whoever sets or maintains any attended
fire shall totally extinguish the attended fire before leaving it and failure
to do so shall make the person, upon conviction, liable to a fine not exceeding
one hundred dollars ($100) or less than ten dollars ($10.00) or to imprisonment
not exceeding thirty (30) days nor less than ten (10) days or both, and further
they shall be liable in a civil action for the payment to the state or fire
company for the expenses incurred by the fire chief or senior officer or any
other authorized forest fire official in attending or suppressing fire or fires
as result from that burning.
(G.L. 1956, § 2-12-7; P.L. 1970, ch. 124, § 4.)