CHAPTER 82
CERTAIN POLICE POWERS VESTED IN MEMBERS OF
FIRE COMPANIES OUTSIDE OF THE CITY OF WILMINGTON
AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE APPOINTMENT BY ORGANIZED FIRE COMPANIES OF CERTAIN OF ITS MEMBERS WHO SHALL BE CLOTHED WITH CERTAIN POLICE POWERS AT FIRES OR FIRE DRILLS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met (two-thirds of all the members elected to each house thereof concurring therein):
Section 1. Any duly organized Fire Company (outside the City of Wilmington) may provide for the appointment of three (3) of its Members to perform police duties at fires and fire drills for a term to be set by the said Fire Company. The members selected by the said Fire Company as Fire Police shall, before entering upon their duties, qualify by taking and subscribing an oath that they will justly, impartially and faithfully discharge their duties according to the best of their ability and understanding. Said oath shall be administered by the Sheriff of the County in which the Fire Company making the appointment is located and shall be subscribed by the Member appointed as a Fire Police in duplicate. The original copy of said oath shall be filed with the Sheriff of the County in which the Fire Company making the appointment is located and a copy thereof filed with the Secretary of the Fire Company making the appointment.
Section 2. A Member of a Fire Company who has been appointed and qualified as a Fire Police shall thereafter, for the term of his appointment, have full power and authority to act as such anywhere in the County, in which the Fire Company making the appointment is located or in any other County of the State of Delaware in which he is called upon to act. He shall perform his duties under the supervision of the fire officer in charge of the fire or fire drill at which he is called upon to act.
Section 3. The duties of the said Fire Police, subject to the supervision of the fire officer in charge of the fire or fire drill at which he is called upon to act, shall be:
(1) to protect the contents of buildings and all other property affected by any fire or fire drill;
(2) to establish and maintain fire lines;
(3) to perform such traffic duties as shall be necessary until the arrival of a duly authorized police officer;
(4) in the absence of investigating authorities to investigate the causes of all fires and preserve all evidence thereof for the proper investigating authorities;
(5) to wear a fire police badge, to be designed and authorized by Delaware Volunteer Firemen's Association, on the left breast of the outermost garment while on duty.
Section 4. Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to allow or permit the fire police, or any of them, to supersede the authority of a duly authorized police officer.
Section 5. If any person shall unreasonably refuse to obey the orders of the fire police, or any of them, in the exercise of their duties, such person may be authorized and held under arrest by the said fire police, or any of them, until the fire at which he is called upon to act is extinguished or the fire drill completed.
Section 6. Any person who shall refuse to obey the orders of a fire police, or any of them, in the exercise of their duties, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction therof before a Justice of the Peace shall be fined in the sum of ten dollars ($10.00).