Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) Subject to the
provisions of this Act a bush fire control officer appointed under this
Act by a local government may, in the exercise of his functions and the
performance of his duties under this Act, do all or any of the following
things —
(a)
exercise any of the appropriate powers of the Director of Operations under the
Fire Brigades Act 1942 , in so far as the same may be necessary or
expedient, for extinguishing a bush fire or for preventing the spread or
extension of the fire;
(b)
enter any land or building, whether private property or not;
(c) pull
down, cut, and remove fences on land, whether private property or not, if in
his opinion it is necessary or expedient so to do for the purpose of taking
effective measures for extinguishing a bush fire, or for preventing the spread
or extension of the fire;
(d)
cause fire-breaks to be ploughed or cleared on land, whether private land or
not, and take such other appropriate measures on the land as he may deem
necessary for the purpose of controlling or extinguishing a bush fire or for
preventing the spread or extension of the fire;
(e) take
and use water, other than that for use at a school or the domestic supply of
an occupier contained in a tank at his dwelling-house, and other fire
extinguishing material from any source whatever on land, whether private
property or not;
(f) take
charge of and give directions to any bush fire brigade present at a bush fire
with respect to its operations or activities in connection with the
extinguishment or control of the bush fire, or the prevention of the spread or
extension of the fire;
(g) any
other thing which in his opinion is incidental to the exercise of any of the
foregoing powers;
(h)
employ a person or use the voluntary services of a person to assist him,
subject to his directions in the exercise of any of the foregoing powers; and
(i)
either alone or with others under his command or
direction enter a building which he believes to be on fire and take such steps
as he considers necessary to extinguish the fire or prevent it from spreading,
but except as arranged with or requested by an officer in charge of a fire
brigade under the Fire Brigades Act 1942 , this power shall not be
exercised in a townsite in an area which has been declared a fire district
under that Act or in a townsite in which there is a fire brigade or
volunteer fire brigade formed under the provisions of that Act.
[(2) deleted]
[Section 39 amended by No. 11 of 1963
s. 19; No. 51 of 1979 s. 5; No. 8 of 1987 s. 4;
No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 38 of 2002 s. 31 and 40; No. 25
of 2009 s. 13.]