The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
004
:
CHIEF ENGINEER
(Cite as: 20 V.S.A. § 2673)
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§ 2673. Powers and duties during hazardous chemical or substance incident, fires; threat of
fires or explosions
(a) The chief engineer, or in the chief’s absence, the assistant highest in rank present
at a hazardous chemical or substance incident or fire, shall have charge of the fire
apparatus and of the companies and persons attending the hazardous chemical or substance
incident or fire for the purpose of containing, controlling, or extinguishing the
same and may remove goods and effects out of a building or place endangered by the
hazardous chemical or substance incident or fire. The chief engineer may cause to
be pulled down or removed such buildings as the chief deems necessary to prevent the
spread of hazardous material or fire and for such purposes may require the assistance
of inhabitants of the district. During the hazardous chemical or substance incident
or fire, the chief engineer may suppress tumults or disorders and direct the labor
of inhabitants present in such fire district.
(b) Where an emergency situation exists in a municipality and there is no fire, but there
is an imminent threat of a hazardous chemical or substance incident, fire, or explosion,
the ranking member of the fire company responding will be in charge as long as the
imminent threat continues. Where there is a threat of bombing, the fire department
shall surrender responsibility to the police department having jurisdiction in the
area.
(c) The ranking member of a fire department shall have authority to direct, control, and
supervise traffic at the scene of a fire or other emergency to which a fire department
has responded.
(d) [Repealed.] (Amended 1961, No. 52, § 1; 1975, No. 222 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. May 7, 1976; 1991, No. 29, § 1; 1993, No. 194 (Adj. Sess.), § 10, eff. June 14, 1994; 2009, No. 135 (Adj. Sess.), § 26(8)(A).)