Rhode Island § 2-12-7 - Forest Fires and Prevention

§ 2-12-7. Exemption of attended fires.

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.