General Laws of Massachusetts - Chapter 48 Fires, Fire Departments and Fire Districts

• Massachusetts General Laws - Appointment of fire wards; penalty for failure to give notice of acceptance - 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Duties; badge of office - Chapter 48, Section 2
  If a fire breaks out, the firewards shall immediately repair thereto, and shall wear a suitable badge of office.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Demolition of buildings - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Powers of fire officials; demolition of buildings - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Indemnification for demolition - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Powers and duties; commanding assistance - Chapter 48, Section 6
  Such firewards or other officers may require assistance for extinguishing a fire and for removing furniture, goods or merchandise from a building on fire or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Powers and duties; direction of fire fighting operations; penalty for noncompliance - Chapter 48, Section 7
  They may direct the stations and operations of the enginemen with their engines and of all other persons, for the purpose of extinguishing the fire....
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appointment of forest wardens; tenure - Chapter 48, Section 8
  The mayor in cities, subject to charter provisions, and, except as provided in section forty-three, the selectmen in towns, shall annually, in June, appoint a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Duties; fire prevention - Chapter 48, Section 9
  If a fire occurs in woodland, the forest warden of the town, or his designee or of a town containing woodland endangered by such fire,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Powers; appointment of assistants; commandeering of people and property - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Penalty for refusal of aid - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Compensation - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Setting open air fires; conditions and restrictions; penalty for violation - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1930, 401, Sec. 2 - Chapter 48, Section 14
  Repealed, 1930, 401, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Powers of arrest - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Definitions - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Handling of slash - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disposition of slash cut near highways - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disposition of slash cut by public utility companies - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Enforcement of regulations prohibiting accumulations of slash - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Penalty for violating provisions prohibiting accumulations of slash - Chapter 48, 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.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1950, 442 - Chapter 48, Section 20A
  Repealed, 1950,
• Massachusetts General Laws - Spark arresters; requirements; penalty for noncompliance - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Inspection of machines requiring spark arresters - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire observation towers - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Firefighting expenditures - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Duties; extinguishment of fires; investigation of causes; posting of warning notices - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Penalty for destruction of warning notices - Chapter 48, 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.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Liability for trespass - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - State fire warden; powers and duties; reports - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1971, 571 - Chapter 48, Section 28A
  Repealed, 1971,
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire patrols in dry areas; authorization; payment of costs - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Closing of forest lands during dry periods; penalty for trespassing - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1997, 51, Sec. 12 - Chapter 48, Section 29 to 35
  Repealed, 1997, 51, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Promotion of call men to permanent force; conditions - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Promotion of call men to regular force; conditions; qualifications - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Application of sections relating to appointment of call men to regular force - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1997, 51, Sec. 13 - Chapter 48, Section 38
  Repealed, 1997, 51, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Compensation of persons employed in fire department; procedure for acquisition - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Certificates of employment; penalty for refusing to file - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Application of sections relating to compensation for enginemen and fire department employees - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Establishment of fire departments; appointment of fire chief; compensation; removal; powers and duties - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Establishment in towns under direction of selectmen; appointment of fire chief, other officers and firemen; compensation; removal; regulations; control of department - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Duties of fire chief; role of forest warden - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Application of sections establishing a fire department and appointing and defining duties of fire chief - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Private fire fighting units; contracts - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Engineers; appointments; removals; vacancies - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Organization of engineers - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Engineers; powers and duties - Chapter 48, 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,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Organization of firefighters - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Engineers; duties; liabilities; privileges and exemptions - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1997, 51, Sec. 17 - Chapter 48, Section 50
  Repealed, 1997, 51, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Penalty for failing to maintain proper fire fighting equipment - Chapter 48, 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.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Breathing apparatus - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Board of engineers; duties - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Engineers; promulgation of rules and regulations for fire prevention - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Engineers; promulgation of rules and regulations relating to conduct at fires; penalty for noncompliance - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Tenure of members - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Hours of labor - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Days off; vacations - Chapter 48, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Days off for working on holidays - Chapter 48, Section 57A
  If any permanent member of the fire fighting force or fire alarm division of a fire department of a city or town is required to...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire fighters; attendance of AFL-CIO-CLC convention - Chapter 48, Section 57B
  Members of the fire department in any city, town, or fire district adopting this section may be excused from duty for not more than four...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire fighters; attendance of Massachusetts Permanent Firemen’s Association or Massachusetts State Firemen’s Association conventions - Chapter 48, Section 57C
  Members of the fire department in any city or town accepting the provisions of this section may be excused from duty for not more than...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire fighters; working on holidays; additional pay or day off - Chapter 48, Section 57D
  If any permanent member of the fire fighting force or fire alarm division of a fire department of a city or town which accepts this...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire chiefs; working on holidays; additional pay - Chapter 48, Section 57E
  If the chief of a fire department of a city or town or the chief, chief engineer or head of a fire department of a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1969, 435, Sec. 2 - Chapter 48, Section 57F
  Repealed, 1969, 435, Sec.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Compensation of certain heads of fire and police departments - Chapter 48, Section 57G
  The permanent, full-time fire chief or chief engineer of a fire department in any city, other than Boston, or town or fire district, and the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Union officers; leave to perform elected responsibilities - Chapter 48, Section 57H
  The elected officers of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, AFL-CIO-CLC shall be granted leave, if on duty, by the municipal employer for those regularly scheduled...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Officers of professional organization; leave without loss of pay or benefits - Chapter 48, Section 57I
  In any city, town or district which accepts the provisions of this section, elected officers of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, AFL-CIO-CLC, shall be granted...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire chiefs; tenure; removal; conditions - Chapter 48, Section 58
  In every town which accepted chapter two hundred and ninety-one of the General Acts of nineteen hundred and sixteen or chapter one hundred and forty...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Hours of duty of permanent firemen; application of sections relating to hours of duty - Chapter 48, Section 58A
  The hours of duty of the permanent members of the uniformed fire fighting force in every city in which this section is accepted by the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Hours of duty of permanent firemen; limitations; application of other sections relating to hours of duty; acceptance of provision by electorate - Chapter 48, Section 58B
  The hours of duty of the permanent members of the uniformed fire fighting force in every city and town in which this section is accepted...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Overtime; compensation - Chapter 48, Section 58C
  If an officer or member, other than the chief, of the fire fighting force of the fire department of a city, town or fire district...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Hours of duty of permanent firemen; application of sections relating to hours of duty; acceptance of provisions - Chapter 48, Section 58D
  The hours of duty of the permanent members of the uniformed fire fighting force in every city and town in which this section is accepted...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire fighters; residence - Chapter 48, Section 58E
  In any city or town which accepts this section, applicants for positions in and members of the regular fire department of said city or town...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Platoon system; submission to electorate - Chapter 48, Section 59
  The permanent members of the uniformed fire fighting force in every town which accepts this section or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws shall...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Aid to other municipalities; authorization; fire departments defined; payment for damages - Chapter 48, Section 59A
  [ First paragraph effective until March 14, 2014. For text effective March 14, 2014, see below.] Cities, towns and fire districts may, by ordinance or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Establishment of reserve force of firemen; conditions - Chapter 48, Section 59B
  Any city, except Boston, in which the city council, with the approval of the mayor, accepts this and the two following sections, may establish a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Membership - Chapter 48, Section 59C
  The number of members of such reserve force shall not exceed five in cities in which the number of members of the regular force does...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Duties; compensation - Chapter 48, Section 59D
  The mayor, chief of the fire department or the officer or board having charge of the said department in a city wherein such reserve force...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appointments from civil service eligible list - Chapter 48, Section 59E
  In any city which has accepted sections fifty-nine B to fifty-nine D, inclusive, and accepts this section, and in any city or town which has...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Establishment of fire departments in districts; duties of officers - Chapter 48, Section 60
  Fire departments may be established in districts containing not less than one thousand inhabitants, or not less than five hundred inhabitants in towns the population...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Establishment of district; procedure - Chapter 48, Section 61
  Before a district is constituted and organized, a petition shall be presented to the town at a meeting, stating the limits of the proposed district,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Organization; notice of meeting - Chapter 48, Section 62
  The selectmen, on written application of not less than seven freeholders, inhabitants of such proposed district, setting forth the limits thereof, and requiring them to...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Election of clerk; removals; vacancies - Chapter 48, Section 63
  If at such meeting the voters determine to organize such district, they shall choose a clerk, who shall be sworn. He may be removed by...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Establishment of fire department - Chapter 48, Section 64
  The district at such meeting may vote to establish a fire department, to consist of a chief engineer and as many assistant engineers, enginemen, hosemen...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Selection of engineers - Chapter 48, Section 65
  The chief engineer and assistant engineers shall be chosen for terms not exceeding three years; provided, however, that the district, at any meeting held in...
• Massachusetts General Laws - District meetings; time; manner of giving notice; selection of moderator - Chapter 48, Section 66
  Every district meeting, except as otherwise provided by special law, shall be called in pursuance of a warrant under the hands of the prudential committee,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Voting lists; preparation and correction - Chapter 48, Section 67
  The registrars of voters of towns containing fire districts, or the prudential committee in districts composed of portions of two or more towns, shall, at...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Application sections relating to the deposit of ballots - Chapter 48, Section 68
  Section eight of chapter forty-one and sections eighty-three and one hundred and six of chapter fifty-four shall apply to fire districts.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Taxation; purposes - Chapter 48, Section 69
  Such districts may, at meetings called therefor, raise money by taxation for the purchase of engines and other articles necessary for the extinguishment of fires,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1950, 170 - Chapter 48, Section 70
  Repealed, 1950,
• Massachusetts General Laws - Prudential committee; selection; duties; treasurer; bond; duties - Chapter 48, Section 71
  Such districts shall choose a prudential committee, which shall expend, for the purposes prescribed by the district, the money so raised or borrowed, and shall...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Temporary treasurer; bond - Chapter 48, Section 72
  If the treasurer is prevented from performing his official duties, or if the office is vacant, the prudential committee may in writing appoint a temporary...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Collection of taxes - Chapter 48, Section 73
  The clerk shall certify to the assessors of the town all votes of the district authorizing interest to be added to taxes and all sums...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Board of engineers; rules and regulations; appointment of personnel - Chapter 48, Section 74
  The board of engineers may make and publish rules and regulations as provided in case of fire departments by sections fifty-three and fifty-four. It may...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Engineers; extent of authority; liability of districts - Chapter 48, Section 75
  Engineers shall have and exercise within their district the powers and authority of firewards of towns relating to the extinguishment of fires and the demolition...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Firemen; privileges and immunities; compensation - Chapter 48, Section 76
  Members of the fire department of such district shall have the immunities and privileges of firewards and enginemen of towns, and shall receive such compensation...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Authentication of district rules and regulations - Chapter 48, Section 77
  No by-law, rule or regulation adopted by a fire district imposing a penalty shall be in force until approved by the attorney general and published...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Holding real estate for public use; lease of land or public building - Chapter 48, Section 77A
  A fire district may hold real estate for the public use of its inhabitants and may by its prudential committee let or lease for not...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Recovery of penalties; prosecution; disposition - Chapter 48, Section 78
  Penalties under any of the four preceding sections may be recovered in tort in the name of the chief engineer and appropriated to expenses of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Annexation and exclusion - Chapter 48, Section 79
  A district, at a meeting called therefor, may annex adjacent territory and its inhabitants, if a majority of the voters of said territory petition therefor,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Continuance of existing districts - Chapter 48, Section 80
  Fire districts heretofore legally organized shall continue and be subject to the provisions of this chapter relative to fire districts.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appropriation - Chapter 48, Section 81
  The sum of eighteen thousand dollars may be paid annually from the state treasury to furnish relief to firemen injured in the performance of their...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Additional persons eligible for benefits - Chapter 48, Section 82
  Any officer or member in active service in an incorporated protective department co-operating with a fire department, and any person performing the duties of a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Allowance to families of deceased firemen; exception - Chapter 48, Section 83
  If a person entitled under either of the two preceding sections to the benefits provided in section eighty-one is killed, or dies within sixty days...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Repealed, 1967, 129 - Chapter 48, Section 84 to 86
  Repealed, 1967,
• Massachusetts General Laws - Standardization of fire fighting equipment - Chapter 48, Section 87
  The department of fire services may make rules and regulations providing for the standardization throughout the commonwealth of threads on fire hose couplings, fittings and...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire fighters; performance of police duties - Chapter 48, Section 88
  No city or town shall require a permanent member of its fire department to perform the duties of a police officer during his tour of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire fighters; firearms - Chapter 48, Section 89
  No fire fighter shall be required to carry firearms in the performance of his duty.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fire district; municipal agency - Chapter 48, Section 90
  For the purposes of chapter 268A, a fire district shall be considered a municipal agency and each part-time firefighter of such fire district and any...

Last modified: September 11, 2015