(a) The Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection shall thoroughly investigate the cause, circumstances and origin of all fires or explosions to which his attention has been called, in accordance with the provisions of this part, by reason of which any property has been destroyed or damaged, or any person injured or killed, and shall especially examine and decide as to whether such fire was the result of carelessness, design, an incendiary device or any other criminal act. He may take the testimony under oath of any person supposed to be cognizant of or to have means of knowledge in relation to the matters as to which an examination is being made, and shall cause the same to be reduced to writing and filed in his office; and if, in his opinion, there is sufficient evidence to warrant that any person should be charged with the crime of arson or any other crime, he shall forthwith submit such evidence, together with the names of the witnesses and all other information obtained by him, to the proper prosecuting officer. He may, in any investigation, issue subpoenas for the purposes of summoning and compelling the attendance of witnesses before him to testify. He may administer oaths or affirmations to witnesses before him, and false swearing therein shall be perjury. He may, in the performance of his duties, enter, by himself or his assistants, into and upon the premises or building where any fire or explosion has occurred and premises thereto adjacent in accordance with the provisions of section 29-311.
(b) Whenever it comes to his knowledge or to the knowledge of any local fire marshal that there exists in any building or upon any premises combustible material or flammable conditions dangerous to the safety of such building or premises or dangerous to any other building or property, or conditions that present a fire hazard to the occupants thereof, the State Fire Marshal, or any local fire marshal, obtaining such knowledge, shall order such material to be forthwith removed or such conditions remedied by the owner or occupant of such building or premises, and such owner or occupant shall be subject to the penalties prescribed by section 29-295 and, in addition thereto, shall suffer a penalty of one hundred dollars a day for each day of neglect, to be recovered in a proper action in the name of the state.
(1949 Rev., S. 3680; 1957, P.A. 516, S. 6; 1959, P.A. 560; 615, S. 23; P.A. 77-614, S. 486, 610; P.A. 81-429, S. 2; P.A. 88-130; P.A. 11-51, S. 108; 11-61, S. 91.)
History: 1959 acts clarified subpoena power of commissioner, changed “inflammable” to “flammable” and added conditions presenting a fire hazard to the grounds on which commissioner may order remedies; P.A. 77-614 replaced commissioner of state police with commissioner of public safety, effective January 1, 1979; P.A. 81-429 added provision requiring investigation of explosions in addition to fires, investigation where personal injury or death results and determination of whether the fire was the result of design, an incendiary device or other criminal act and whether any person should be charged with any crime, and deleted provision permitting state fire marshal to enter premises at any time of day or night, replacing it with provision allowing entry in accordance with Sec. 29-311; Sec. 29-57 transferred to Sec. 29-310 in 1983; P.A. 88-130 inserted Subsec. indicators and amended Subsec. (b) to increase the penalty from $10 to $100 a day; P.A. 11-51 amended Subsec. (a) to delete reference to Commissioner of Public Safety serving as State Fire Marshal and amended Subsec. (b) to change “commissioner” to “State Fire Marshal”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 11-61 amended Subsec. (a) to replace “State Fire Marshal” with “Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection”, effective July 1, 2011.
Annotation to former section 29-57:
Cited. 119 C. 601.
Annotations to present section:
Once charred wood flooring samples were lawfully seized pursuant to the cause and origin investigation statutes, defendant no longer possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy in them. 246 C. 63.
Cited. 46 CA 350.