15 
along with the personal assistance required by the State 
fire law, either in pursuing a criminal or fighting fire. 
Such action, which is common by city police, may get by, 
but forest officers should not attempt such tactics. 
CIVIL LAWS. 
The civil laws are too voluminous for reproduction here, 
and their application is too complex to be attempted by 
a layman. It is of sufficient importance for note here, 
however, that chapter 264, California Laws of 1905, as 
amended in 1919, gives to the United States the right, 
heretofore limited to the State and counties, of recovery 
in a civil action of double the damages sustained from 
man-caused fire, if the fire occurred through willfulness, 
malice, or negligence, but only the actual damage if the 
fire occurred or escaped accidentally or unavoidably. In 
either case the full costs incurred in fighting any such fires 
may also be recovered. 
In order to hold for costs or damages, in a civil action, 
an owner of land on which a fire is burning, in event of 
the escape or spread of the fire to national forest land, the 
following things must be observed at the time of the fire: 
1. The owner must be notified of the existence of fire 
on his land, together with its size and degree of danger, 
and the nature and probable cost of the measures required 
to combat it. 
2. This notification must be in time to give him reason¬ 
able opportunity to take the required action before it 
spreads to national forest land. 
3. If he then takes measures which are not adequate, 
it must be proved, both that they were in fact inadequate, 
and that he was informed what measures would be ade¬ 
quate and necessary. 
4. No action must be taken by the Forest Service to 
fight such a fire, before it has spread to national forest land, 
until the owner has commenced action on it, or has had 
a reasonable time in which to do*so. 
It should be noted that the above has no reference to 
criminal prosecutions. 
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