The Vermont Statutes Online
The Vermont Statutes Online does not include the actions of the 2024 session of the General Assembly. We expect them to be updated by November 1st.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Title 20 : Internal Security and Public Safety
Chapter 173 : Prevention and Investigation of Fires
Subchapter 004 : Investigation of Fires
(Cite as: 20 V.S.A. § 2831)-
§ 2831. Investigations
(a) The Fire Marshal and the Fire Marshal’s assistants are authorized to investigate the cause, origin, and circumstances of every fire within the State that causes injury to any person or that causes damage or loss of property in excess of $200.00. The Fire Marshal and the Fire Marshal’s assistants shall make a special investigation of any fire of suspicious origin. In any investigation carried out by the Fire Marshal, the Fire Marshal shall cooperate with the local fire department.
(b) The chief of a volunteer or paid fire department or the chief’s designee and, in towns lacking a fire department, the selectboard chair shall investigate the cause, origin, and circumstances of every fire occurring in the jurisdiction that causes injury to any person or that causes damage or loss of property in excess of $200.00. The chief or the selectboard chair may make a special investigation as to whether a fire was the result of carelessness or accident and shall make a special investigation of any fire of suspicious origin. (Amended 1973, No. 137 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 393, eff. July 1, 2022.)
