FOREST FIRES 21 



shall be his duty to enforce the provisions of this act throughout the 

 state. 



SEC. 3. The Chief Fire Warden shall have general charge of the Duties of 

 fire warden force of the state and shall have authority to mass such S?^ e ^ ^ r 

 fire warden force as may be available at any special point to suppress 

 fires. In case the fire warden force of any locality is deemed by said 

 Chief Fire Warden inadequate to prevent or suppress forest or prairie 

 fires, he may appoint, temporarily, needed fire wardens whose duties 

 and authority shall be the same as herein given to town supervisors 

 acting as fire wardens. He shall properly divide into fire districts 

 all unorganized territory in this state and appoint competent fire 

 wardens therein; he shall co-operate with any police or military 

 force of the United States Government which may be detailed to 

 guard the national domain from fire; he shall investigate the extent 

 of the forests in the state, together with the amounts and varieties of 

 the wood and timber growing therein, the damages done to them 

 from time to time by forest fires and the causes of such fires, the 

 method used, if any, to promote the regrowth of timber, and any 

 other important facts relating to forest interests, which may be re- 

 quired by the Forest Commissioner. The information so gathered, 

 with his suggestions relative thereto, shall be included in a report 

 to be made by him annually to the Forest Commissioner. 



SEC. 4. The Forest Commissioner shall provide and officially sign Warning 

 an abstract of the penal laws of this act, with such rules and regula- noti ces. 

 tions in accord therewith as he may deem necessary, and on or before 

 the first day of April of each year he shall forward as many copies as 

 he considers needful to the chairman of each town board of super- 

 visors and presidents of villages, to the forest fire wardens that he has 

 appointed, and to all railroad companies, and to the chairman of 

 each board of county commissioners in this state, and it shall be the 

 duty of said fire wardens to post up such abstract as warning plac- 

 ards in conspicuous places in their respective districts, and it shall 

 be the duty of the county commissioners of each county to cause the 

 said abstract to be published in at least three issues of the official 

 paper in their respective counties during the fire-dangerous season 

 of each year, which shall be reckoned from the 15th of April to 

 the 1st of November. 



SEC. 5. During a dry and dangerous season, when forest and 

 prairie fires are prevailing or are liable to break out, the Chief Fire 

 Warden shall use such means under his command as he may deem 

 necessary to prevent or suppress such fires, and his expenses shall 

 be paid by the state, which expenditures in one year shall not exceed 

 five thousand dollars, to be paid for out of the general revenue fund, 

 upon the order of the Forest Commissioner. 



SEC. 6. It shall be the duty of each fire warden to take precautions 

 to prevent the setting of forest or prairie fires, to patrol his district 

 in a dry season, or under the direction of the Chief Fire Warden, to 

 employ one or more patrols, to warn against careless use of fire any 

 person he thinks is likely to be negligent therein, and when his dis- 

 trict is suffering or threatened with fire, to go to the place of danger 

 to control such fires, and each forest fire warden shall have authority 

 to call to his assistance in emergencies any able-bodied male person 

 over eighteen years of age, and if such person refuses, without reason- 

 able justification or excuse, to assist, or if any fire warden refuses or 

 neglects to perform the duties assigned him in this act, such officer 

 or person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon 

 conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred 



