BUSH FIRES ACT 1954 - SECT 44
BUSH FIRES ACT 1954 - SECT 44
44 . Powers and authorities of officers of bush fire brigade
(1) Subject to this
Act, and except as provided in section 45 for the purpose of controlling and
extinguishing or preventing the occurrence or spread or extension of a bush
fire, or for any other prescribed purpose, the captain, or, in his absence,
the next senior officer of a bush fire brigade, or in the absence of the
captain and all other officers, any other member of the bush fire brigade,
after consulting with the occupier of the land if he be present, has and may
exercise all or any of the following powers and authorities, he may —
(a)
control and direct the bush fire brigade at the fire or a person who
voluntarily places his service at his disposal;
(b)
either alone or with others under his command or direction, enter on land or
into premises which may be on fire or in the neighbourhood of a fire for the
purpose of taking such steps as he deems necessary for the control or
extinguishment or for the prevention of the spread or extension of the fire,
or take or give directions for taking such apparatus required to be used at a
fire into, through, or upon land or premises as he considers convenient for
the purpose;
(c) take
any measures which in the circumstances are reasonable and appear to him to be
necessary or expedient for the protection of life and property; and, for the
purpose of controlling or extinguishing or for preventing the spread or
extension of a fire, cause fences to be pulled down or removed, and bush or
other inflammable material to be burnt, or otherwise destroyed or removed;
(d)
enter or give directions for entering land or premises, and take or cause to
be taken water from any source whatsoever, other than that for use at a school
or the domestic supply of an occupier contained in a tank at his
dwelling-house, whether the water is upon private land or other land, and in
all other respects, when and as often as in his opinion he deems it necessary
or expedient to do so, exercise all the powers and authorities of a bush fire
control officer under this Act;
(e)
either alone or with others under his command or direction enter a building
which he believes to be on fire and take such steps as he considers necessary
to extinguish such fire or prevent it from spreading.
(2) The powers
conferred by subsection (1)(e) shall not be exercised —
(a) in
an area which has been declared a fire district under the Fire Brigades Act
1942 , unless at the express request of an officer of a fire brigade
established under that Act; or
(b) in
an area in which there is a fire brigade or volunteer fire brigade formed
under the provisions of that Act, unless at the express request of an officer
of the fire brigade or volunteer fire brigade as the case may be.
(3) Subject to the
provisions of sections 13(6) and 45, where the bush fire brigade of a local
government is present at a fire which is burning within the district of the
local government, if a bush fire control officer of the local government is
not present, the captain or in his absence the next senior officer of the bush
fire brigade of the local government, or in the absence of the captain and all
other officers of that bush fire brigade, any other member of that bush fire
brigade has and shall take supreme control and charge of all operations and
the officers and members of another bush fire brigade if present are subject
to and shall act under his orders and directions.
(4) Subject to the
provisions of sections 13(6) and 45, where a bush fire control officer of a
local government is present at a fire which is burning in the district of the
local government, he has supreme control and charge of all operations, and the
officers and members of all bush fire brigades present at the fire are subject
to and shall act under his orders and directions.
[Section 44 amended: No. 35 of 1957 s. 9; No. 14
of 1996 s. 4; No. 25 of 2009 s. 14; No. 19 of 2010 s. 52(4); No. 17 of 2014
s. 17(4).]