CHAPTER 79

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 10-45, 10-46, 10-47, 10-55, 10-57, 10-58,
10-59, 10-61, 10-61.1, 10-62 and 10-67 of the Code of Virginia, and
to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 10-46.1,
the amended and new section relating to jurisdiction of certain courts
for certain offenses, payments into a special fund by counties and
cities for fire protection, and methods by which the amount of such
payments are arrived upon; providing for contracts by cities with
the State Forester; authorizing cities and counties to tax and ap-
propriate money for such purposes; provide for payment of certain
expenses, and for compensation for certain persons, and repayment
of such amounts paid out by counties and cities; to provide for the
employment of fire fighters; and to provide for the collection of cer-
tain damages and to provide penalties. ee

[S 6]

Approved February 24, 1964

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 10-45, 10-46, 10-47, 10-55, 10-57, 10-58, 10-59, 10-61, 10-61.1,
10-62 and 10-67 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted, and
that the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a section numbered
10-46.1, as follows:

§ 10-45. The * judge of a county court or municipal court of a city
wherein the offense shal] have been committed, shall have the jurisdiction
to hear and determine all prosecutions for the purpose of enforcing fines
and penalties collectible under the provisions of this chapter, not exceeding
the amount of one hundred dollars, and of holding the offender. under
proper bail if necessary, for hearing before the circuit or corporation
court, and committing him to * jail until hearing, if the required bail is
not furnished. It shall be the duty of the Commonwealth’s attorneys of
the several counties or cities to prosecute all violators of this chapter.

§ 10-46. (a) Each county in this State, or city which enters into a
contract with the State Forester under § 10-46.1 to provide forest fire
prevention, upon presentation to its governing body of an itemized state-
ment duly certified by the Director shall repay into the State treasury
monthly beginning July first, nineteen hundred and forty-five in the case
of counties and, in the case of cities, on the first day of the month following
the month in which this act becomes effective, any amounts expended in
the preceding month by the Director in such county 07 city for forest pro-
tection, forest fire detection, prevention and suppression, not exceeding in
any one year an amount measured by the acreage, computed upon the
basis of one cent an acre, of privately-owned forests in the county or city,
according to the United States Forest Survey of nineteen hundred and
forty subject to additions and deductions of acreage since the making of
this survey. In any additions or deductions of acreage from that given
by this survey, any land, other than commercial orchards, sustaining as its
principal cover a growth of trees or woody shrubs shall be considered forest
land, irrespective of the merchantability of the growth, and cut-over land,
shall be considered as forest land unless or until it has been cleared or
improved for other use. Open land shall be considered as forest land when
it bears at least eighty well distributed seedlings or sprouts of woody
species per acre. The amounts so repaid by the counties or cities into the
State treasury from time to time shall be credited to a special fund for
forest protection, forest fire detection, prevention and suppression in the
State, and, with such other funds as may be appropriated by the General
Assembly or contributed by the United States or any governmental or
private agency for these purposes, shall be used and disbursed by the Direc-
tor for such purposes. In cities this paragraph shall be subject to § 10-46.1.

(b) In any case in which the Director and the governing body of any
county or city cannot agree upon the additions or deductions to privately-
owned forest acreage in a particular county or city, or to changes in forest
acreage from year to year, the question shall be submitted to the judge of
the circuit or corporation court of the county or city by a summary and
informal proceeding, in term or vacation, and the decision of the judge
certified to the governing body and to the Director, respectively, shall be
conclusive and final.

§ 10-46.1. (a) In addition to the application of Articles 2, 8 and 4
to forest lands lying in counties, such articles shall also apply to forest
lands lying within cities. For the purposes of such articles, as applied to
cities, forest land shall be considered as comprising land which bears at
least eighty well distributed seedlings or sprouts of woody species per
acre and which land is primarily devoted to the growth and production of
timber and other forest products for commercial purposes.

(b) The State Forester, with the prior written approval of the Di-
rector of the Department of Conservation and Economic Development, 1s
authorized to enter into contracts prepared by the Attorney General with
the governing body of any city in which any such forest land is located.
Any such contract, among other matters, shall include provision for the
State Forester to furnish forest fire prevention, forest fire detection, and
forest fire suppression services together with enforcement of those pro-
visions of State law applicable to forest fires on forest lands upon any
such lands located within a city. The services so provided by the State
Forester shall be of the same general type, character, and standard as
the same services provided in counties generally.

§ 10-47. The governing bodies of the several counties and those cities
entering into a contract as provided in § 10-46.1 of this State are author-
ized to levy taxes and appropriate money for purposes of forest protection,
improvement and management.

§ 10-55. Whenever the Director considers it necessary, he may apply
to the Governor to commission such persons as the Director may designate
to act as forest wardens of this State, to enforce the forest laws, and, under
his direction through the State Forester, to aid in carrying out the purposes
of this chapter. Such wardens shall receive such compensation as may be
provided in accordance with law for the purpose. Forest wardens thus
appointed shall, before entering upon the duties of their office, take the
proper official oath before the clerk of the court of the county or city in
which they reside, after which they shall, while holding such office, possess
and exercise all the authority and power held and exercised by constables
at common law and by arresting officers under the statutes of this State,
so far as arresting and prosecuting persons for violations of any of the
forest fire laws or of any of the laws or rules or regulations enacted or
made, or to be enacted or made, for the protection of the State forestry
reserves, or for the protection of the fish and game contained therein, are
concerned.

§ 10-57. When any forest warden sees or there is reported to him a
forest fire, he shall repair immediately to the scene of the fire and employ
such persons and means as in his judgment are expedient and necessary
to extinguish the fire, within the limits of the expense he has been author-
ized to incur in his instructions from the State Forester. He shall keep
an itemized account of all expenses thus incurred and immediately send
the account verified by affidavit to the State Forester for examination.

Upon approval by the State Forester the account shall be paid from
the fund provided for protection of forests in the several counties or cities,
as appropriated for such purpose. Any person having a claim for compen-
sation hereunder may avail himself of the ordinary process of law in a
proceeding in the county or city in which the services were rendered
against the Commonwealth, in which the Director shall be made a party.

No such payment shall be made to any person who has maliciously
started the fire or to any person whose negligence caused or contributed to
the setting of the fire.

§ 10-58. Whenever possible the State Forester shall collect the cost
of fire fighting done under the direction of a forest warden in accordance
with the provisions of § 10-57 and approved as provided in that section,
from the person responsible for the origin of the fire by his negligence or
intent, and shall return any costs so collected to the State treasury for
credit to the special fund hereby provided for, and such amounts shall be
repaid to the county or city in which the costs were incurred, but not ex-
ceeding the payments made by that county or city in the fiscal year in
which such costs were accrued, and the attorney for the Commonwealth of
the county or city in which the fire occurred shall institute and prosecute
the necessary proceedings.

§ 10-59. Any forest warden to whom written instructions have been
issued by the State Forester authorizing him to employ persons to assist
in suppressing forest fires, shall have the authority to summon as many
able-bodied male persons between eighteen and fifty years of age as may,
in his discretion, be reasonably necessary to assist in extinguishing any
forest fire which may burn in any county or city of this State which is
organized for forest fire control under the direction of the State Forester.
Any person so summoned by a forest warden to fight a forest fire shall
be paid for such service at such rate of pay as is provided for in the State
forest service wage scale for fire fighting in effect in the county or city,
or part thereof, in which the fire is fought. Provided that such warden
shall not summon for such service any person while engaged in the duties
of muintaining the rights of way of railroads in a safe condition for the
passage of trains, nor any station agent, operator or other person while
engaged in duties necessary for the safe operation of such trains.

Any person so summoned who shall fail or refuse to assist in fighting
such fire, unless such failure is due to physical inability or other good and
valid reason, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall
be fined not more than twenty-five dollars.

§ 10-61. Any person who negligently, carelessly, or intentionally with-
out using reasonable care and precaution to prevent its escape, starts a
fire which burns on forest land, brushland or wasteland, shall be liable for
the full amount of all expenses incurred, both by the county or city and by
the Commonwealth, for fighting or extinguishing such fire, all of which
shall be recoverable by action brought by the State Forester in the name
of the Commonwealth. It shall be the duty of the Commonwealth’s at-
torneys of the several counties or cities to institute and prosecute proper
proceedings under this section, at the instance of the State Forester.

The provisions of this section shall cover every manner or way in
which forestland or brushland or wasteland fires may be started, whether
by direct act, or by an appliance or by indirection.

The term “person” as used in this section shall include individuals,
associations, partnerships, joint stock companies and corporations, and
their officers, servants, agents and employees. Every county or city in
which a fire has occurred for the suppression of which any costs are col-
lected pursuant to this section shall be reimbursed by that proportion of
any amount so collected which the cost incurred by such county or city in
the suppression of such fire bears to the entire cost of its suppression.
§ 10-61.1. Whenever it shall be established that a forest, brush or
grass fire originated from the negligent construction, maintenance or
operation of an electric transmission line, or of the right of way, the owner
of the line shall pay to the State and the county or city in which such fire
occurred all expenses incurred by them in suppressing the fire. Such fire
suppression expenses shall be recoverable by action at law brought by the
State Forester in the name of the Commonwealth on behalf of the Common-
wealth and on behalf of the board of supervisors of the county or counties
or on behalf of the council of any city or cities in which the fire burned.

It shall be the duty of the Commonwealth’s attorneys of the several
counties and cities to institute and prosecute proper proceedings under
this section at the request of the State Forester.

§ 10-62. (a) It shall be unlawful for any owner or lessee of land
to set fire to, or to procure another to set fire to, any woods, brush, logs,
leaves, grass, debris, or other inflammable material upon such land unless
he previously shall have taken all reasonable care and precaution, by having
cut and piled the same or carefully cleared around the same, to prevent
the spread of such fire to lands other than those owned or leased by him.
It shall also be unlawful for any employee of any such owner or lessee of
land to set fire to or to procure another to set fire to any woods, brush,
logs, leaves, grass, debris, or other inflammable material, upon such land
unless he shall have taken similar precautions to prevent the spread of such
fire to any other land.

(b) During the period beginning March 1st and ending May fifteenth
of each year, even though the precautions required by the foregoing para-
graph shall have been taken, it shall be unlawful, in any county or city or
portion thereof organized for forest fire control under the direction of
the State Forester, for any person to set fire to, or to procure another to
set fire to, any brush, leaves, grass, debris or field containing dry grass or
other inflammable material capable of spreading fire, located in or within
three hundred feet of any woodland or brushland, except between the
hours of four o’clock post meridian and twelve o’clock midnight.

(c) The provisions of subsection (b) of this section shall not apply
to any fires which may be * set on rights of way of railroad companies by
their duly authorized employees.

(d) Any person violating any provisions of this section shall, upon
conviction, be fined not less than ten or more than one hundred dollars for
each separate offense. If any forest fire shall originate as a result of the
violation by any person of any provision of this section, such person shall,
in addition to the above penalty, be liable to the State and to each county
or city which enters into a contract as provided in § 10-46.1 for the full
amount of all expenses incurred by the State and the county or city respec-
tively in suppressing such fire, such amounts to be recoverable by action
brought by the State Forester in the name of the Commonwealth on behalf
of the Commonwealth and by the board of supervisors on behalf of the
county or by the council on behalf of the city.

Subsection (b) of this section shall not become effective in any county
or city of the Commonwealth unless and until the same shall have been
approved by a majority vote of the governing body of such county or city.

§ 10-67. All individuals and corporations causing fires by violation
of any of the provisions of this article shall be liable to the State, * county
or city in which the fire occurred, for all damages the State, * county or city
may sustain by such fire or fires, and, in addition thereto, to the full
amount of all expenses incurred by the State, * county or city in fighting
or extinguishing such fire.

2. An emergency exists and this Act is in force from its passage.