Fire - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition fire

Definition :

Fire. No action for damages lies against any person in whose house, etc., a fire shall accidentally begin: Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act, 1774 (14 Geo. 3, c. 78), s. 86, which s. and s. 83 are the only unrepealed sections of the Act.

To discharge or dismiss a person from employment; to terminate as employee. Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.

Fire Engines.--The maintenance of fire engines in urban sanitary districts is provided for by the Public Health Act, 1875, s. 171, which incorporates ss. 30-33 of the (English) Town Police Clauses Act, 1847, in the (English) Metropolis by the Fire Brigade Act, 1865, and in parishes by the (English) Parish Fire Engines Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 38), and the Acts therein recited.

By s. 90 of the (English) Public Health Amendment Act, 1907, local authorities can agree for the common use of fire engines and appliances; ss. 87-89 of the same Act give the police certain powers of breaking into premises and regulating traffic upon the out break of a fire, but the captain of the fire brigade is to have control of the operations.

As to the appointment of firemen in mines. [see (English) Coal Mines Act, 1911, ss. 14, 15]

False Alarm.--The (English) False Alarms of Fire Act, 1895 (58 & 59 Vict. c. 28), enacts by s. 1 that:-

Any person knowingly giving or causing to be given a false alarm of fire to the fire brigade of any town or parish outside the metropolitan area [see as to London s. 16 of London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. ccxxi.)], or to any officer thereof, whether by means of a street fire alarm, statement, message, or otherwise, shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction, and shall, on conviction for such offence by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction, be liable for every such offence to a penalty not exceeding 20l.

If, after a contract for the sale or lease of a house, etc., the house, etc., be burnt down, the loss falls on the intending purchaser or tenant, Paine v. Meller, (1801) 6 Ves 349; Counter v. Macpherson, (1845) 5 Moore PC 83; and he cannot claim the benefit of any subsisting insurance that may have been effected by the vendor, Raymer v. Preston, (1881) 18 Ch D 1. See, now, however, s. 47 of the Law of Property Act, 1925, which provides in such case that the insurance money shall on completion of the purchase be receivable by the purchaser subject to consent of the insurers, and to payment of the proportionate part of the premium by the purchaser. This condition may be excluded or modified by agreement. In a lease, both the covenant to pay rent and the covenant to repair must be complied with by the tenant notwithstanding the destruction of the demised premises by fire, for which reason it is common to insert in each of these covenants an appropriate saving or exception. See also INSURANCE.

As to fires caused by sparks, etc., from railway engines, see the (English) Railway Fires Act, 1905, and the Railway Fires Act (1905) Amendment Act, 1923.