FIREWARDS. A.-Choice of Firewards; liability for refusal to serve; their power and duty at fires. § 1. Choice of Firewards; ib. Person elected to be notified; ib. Liability for refusal to serve; ib. New choice, on refusal. 2. To attend at fires with official badge. 3. Power to demolish buildings. 4. Power to require assistance; to appoint guards to secure property; to demolish buildings; and to suppress tumults. ib. Authority to direct operations of Engine men and others; ib. Liabilities for disobedience of orders. B. Of compensation to owners of buildings demolished to prevent the spreading of fires. § 1. In what cases owner of de- ib. By whom, and how paid. 3. Owner may appeal to Sessions if aggrieved. 4. Collector's power to collect sums assessed for compensation. C.-Forfeiture for occupying buildings for certain purposes except by permission; Liability for plunder of property at fires : §1. Forfeiture for occupying build ing as a sail loft or livery stable, without permission. 2. Penalty for embezzling property at fires. 3. Penalty for setting fire to combustibles, &c. within 10 rods of any building. ib. Liability of masters and parents of minors. 4. Penalty for throwing lighted squibs, &c. without li cence. A.-Choice of Firewards; liability for refusal to serve; their power and duty at fires. 1. Each town in this State in their March or April meeting annually, wherein the qualified voters shall think it expedient to choose firewards, shall hereafter have power to elect such number of suitable persons to be firewards therein, as shall be deemed necessary; and each person so elected shall be notified thereof within three days; and shall within three days after being so notified, enter his acceptance or refusal of the said office with the town Clerk. And if any person being so elected and notified, shall neglect to enter his acceptance or refusal as aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay ten dollars, unless excused by the town; and the town shall have power to elect another in his place, in case of such neglect or refusal. ch. 132, s. 6. 2. When any fire shall break out in any town wherein firewards shall be appointed, they shall immediately attend thereat, and carry with them a suitable staff or badge of their office. ib. 3. When any fire shall break out in any town, the firewards thereof who shall be present at the place in immediate danger, or any three of them, and where no firewards shall be appointed, a major part of the Selectmen present; or in their absence two or three of the civil officers present; or in their absence two or three of the chief military officers of said town present, shall have power to direct the pulling down or demolishing any such house or building as they shall judge necessary to be pulled down or demolished, in order to prevent the further spreading of the fire. s. 7. 4. During the continuance of any fire, the said firewards or officers, as the case may be, shall have power to require assistance for extinguishing the same, and for removing any furniture, goods, or merchandise from any building on fire, or in danger thereof, and to appoint guards to secure the same; and also assistance for pulling down or demolishing any house or building as the case may require; and further to suppress all tumults and disorders. And the said firewards, Selectmen or officers, as the case may be, shall have authority to direct and appoint the stations and operations of the engine men with their engines and of all other persons, for the purpose of extinguishing the fire, and preventing its increase and if any person shall refuse or neglect to obey any order given by said firewards or officers in the premises, the person so offending shall forfeit and pay for each offence ten dollars. ib. B. Of compensation to owners of buildings demolished to prevent the spreading of fires. 1. If the pulling down or demolishing of any house or building, by the directions aforesaid, shall be the means of stopping the said fire; or if the fire stop before it come to the same, then every owner of such house or building shall receive a reasonable compensation, and be paid for the same by the inhabitants of the town in which the fire shall happen. And it shall be the duty of the qualified voters in such town, to grant such sum or sums of money as shall be thought necessary and proper by the Selectmen of the same town, and of the Assessors to assess the same. ch. 132, s. 8. 2. Provided always, That when it shall be adjudged fit that the house or building where the fire shall first begin and break out should be pulled down or demolished to prevent the further spreading and increase of the same fire; then the owner of such house or building shall receive no compensation for the same. ib. 3. Provided also, That if any person shall find him or herself aggrieved by the doings of the town, Selectmen or Assessors thereof in estimating, voting or assessing such sum or sums, he or she shall have a right to appeal and complain to the next Court of Sessions to be holden in the county; and the said Court thereon shall have power on a consideration of all the circumstances of the case, to confirm said doings of said town, Selectmen or Assessors, or to alter the same in such manner as the said Court shall judge proper; and in either case to award legal costs, as the justice of the case may require. ib. 4. The Collectors to whom the said assessments shall be committed to collect, shall have the same powers and be subject to the same duties, as in the collection of other town taxes, as well in collecting an assessment so confirmed or altered, as in cases wherein there shall be no appeal. ib. C.-Forfeiture for occupying buildings for certain purposes except by permission: Liability for plunder of property at fires : Fine for setting fire to combustibles in streets, making bonfires, throwing rockets, &c.* 1. If any person shall occupy or improve any tenement or building whatever, in any part of any maritime town in this State for the business or employment of a sail maker or rigger or keeper of a livery stable, except only in * For powers of Selectmen in the prevention of fire, see Selectmen. such parts of the town as the Selectmen thereof or a major part of them shall direct and determine, such sail maker or rigger, so offending, shall forfeit and pay for each offence ten dollars; and such keeper of a livery stable shall forfeit and pay for each offence fifty dollars, for every month so occupying the same, and so in proportion for a longer or shorter time. ch. 132, s. 10. 2. If any person shall, in such case of fire, plunder, purloin, embezzle, convey away or conceal any furniture, goods or chattels, rights or credits, merchandize or effects of the inhabitants whose houses or buildings shall be on fire or endangered thereby, and said inhabitants shall be put upon removing the same, and shall not restore or give notice thereof to the owner (if known) or to one of the firewards of the town, or bring them into such public place as shall be assigned by the Selectmen of the town within two days after public notice shall be posted in some public place in the town by the Selectmen thereof, for that purpose, the person or persons so offending, and being thereof convicted, shall be deemed guilty of larceny, and punished accordingly. s. 9. 3. If any person or persons shall set fire to any pile of combustible stuff, or be any ways concerned in causing or making a bonfire in any street or lane, or any other part of any town within this State, such bonfire being within ten rods of any house or building, every person so offending shall, for each offence, forfeit and pay the sum of eight dollars, or be imprisoned not exceeding one month. The fine shall be recovered, with costs of prosecution, one moiety to the use of the town wherein the offence shall be committed, and the other moiety to him or them who shall sue for the same. And all masters are hereby made liable to pay the fine as aforesaid for the offences of their servants; and all parents for the offences of their children under age and not being servants. ch. 125, s. 10. 4. If any person shall offer for sale, set fire to or throw any lighted cracker, squib, rocket or serpent within this State, without the license of the Selectmen of the several towns, respectively, first obtained therefor, he shall forfeit for every such offence, the sum of five dollars; one moiety to the use of the poor of that town, in which the offence shall be committed, and the other moiety to the use of the prosecutor; to be recovered by action of debt or by information before any Justice of the Peace of the county, in which the offence shall be committed, with the costs of suit. ch. 26. HEALTH COMMITTEES, OR OFFICERS, AND SUPERINTENDANTS OF VACCINATION. §1. Towns may choose health ib. Their power and duty. 3. Power to require vessels to perform quarantine. 4. Where no board of health, towns may choose superintendants of vaccination: their duty. 5. Towns may raise money to defray expenses. § 1. Each town in this State, may at their meeting held in March or April annually, or at any other meeting legally warned for the purpose, when they shall judge it to be necessary, choose and appoint a health committee, to consist of not less than five, nor more than nine suitable persons, or one person to be a health officer, whose duty it shall be to remove all filth of any kind whatever which shall be found in any of the streets, lanes, wharves, docks, or in any other place whatever within the limits of the town to which such committee or health officer belongs, whenever such filth shall in their judgment endanger the lives or the health of the inhabitants thereof, and also to require the owner or occupier to remove or discontinue any drain from which any such filth may proceed. All the expenses whereof to be paid by the person or persons who placed such filth there, if known; or if not, by the town by which the said committee or health officer was appointed. ch. 127, s. 8. 2. And whenever any filth or drain as aforesaid shall be found on private property, said committee or health officer shall notify and order the owner or occupier thereof, after twenty-four hours' notice, to remove the same or discontinue such drain at their own expense; and in case said owner or occupier shall neglect to remove such filth from his or her property or to remove or discontinue such drain after the expiration of the time aforesaid, he or they so offending shall |