If a selectman of a town or a mayor of a city is informed that a building, pile of wood, lumber or bark or any other property in the town, has been wilfully and maliciously set on fire or burned, a majority of the selectmen, or the mayor, may apply to a district judge, who shall inquire into the cause of the fire and the manner in which it was set and the property burned. (Amended 1965, No. 194, § 10, eff. Feb. 1, 1967; 1973, No. 249 (Adj. Sess.), § 73, eff. April 9, 1974.)