Sikkim Fire Services Act, 1981
No: 9 Dated: Oct, 19 1981
SIKKIM FIRE SERVICE ACT, 1981
ACT NO. 9 OF 1981
An act to provide for the constitution and maintenance of a fire brigade for the State of Sikkim; for licensing of warehouses and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Sikkim in the Thirty-second Year of the Republic of India as follows :-
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent, commencement and withdrawal. -(1) This Act may be called the Sikkim Fire Services Act, 1981.
(2) It extends to the whole of Sikkim.
(3) It shall come into force in any area on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different areas and for different provisions of this Act; and the State Government may by like notification withdraw this Act or the provisions thereof from any such area:
Provided that when the fire brigade is sent to any place outside any such area this Act shall be deemed to be in force in such place for all purposes connected with service therein.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "Director" means the Director of Fire Services appointed by the State Government under sub-section (3) of section 3 ;
(b) "fire brigade" means the fire brigade maintained by the State Government under section 3 and includes an Auxiliary fire brigade raised under section 4;
(c) "fire fighting property" includes-
(i) lands and buildings used as fire stations;
(ii) fire engines, equipments, tools, implements and things whatsoever used for fire-fighting;
(iii) motor vehicles and other means of transport used in connection with fire-fighting;
(iv) uniforms and badges of rank ;
(d) "fire station" means any post or place declared, generally or specially by the State Government to be a fire station;
(e) "members of the fire brigade" include persons employed in the Sikkim Fire Services and also volunteers and other persons enrolled in an Auxiliary fire brigade;
(f) "officer-in-charge" of a fire station includes, when the officer-in-charge of the fire station is absent from the station or unable from illness or other cause to perform his duties, the member of the fire brigade present at the station who is next in rank to such officer;
(g) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(h) "warehouse" means any building or place used whether temporarily or permanently for the storing or processing or keeping of jute, gunny bags, cotton, hemp, resin, shellac, varnish, bitumen, pitch, tar, tallow, celluloid, wood, (excluding furniture kept in the building or place for ordinary use), charcoal, coal, straw, hay, grass, raw rattan canes, coconut fibre, waste paper, packing boxes or any other inflammable articles or chemicals and also any other article which is likely to increase the risk of fire and which is specified by the State Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, for the purpose of this clause;
(i) "workshop" means any building or place where processing of any article is carried on for purposes of trade or business, if processing of such article is declared by the State Government, by notification in the Official Gazette in this behalf, to be attended with the risk of fire.
Explanation. - The expression "processing" means making, altering, repairing, treating or otherwise dealing with any article by means of steam, electricity or other mechanical power.
CHAPTER II
Fire Brigade
3. Maintenance, constitution, etc. of fire brigade. -(1) The State Government shall maintain a fire brigade for services in areas in which this Act is in force and may, if it thinks fit, send the fire brigade to any place outside any such area for service therein.
(2) The fire brigade shall consist of such number of members and shall be otherwise constituted in such manner as the State Government may think fit.
(3) The State Government shall appoint a person to be the Director of the Fire Services under this Act; and he shall remain under the control of the Inspector General of Police.
(4) The fire brigade shall be under the direction and control of the Director who may, with the previous sanction of the State Government and subject to the orders or rules, if any, made by the State Government under the provisions of this Act, frame such regulations as it Thinks fit relating, to-
(a) the general administration and control of the fire brigade including terms and conditions of service of members thereof;
(b) the equipments, clothing and accoutrement of the members of the fire brigade, their classification and duties and distribution of work among them;
(c) the place at which or the limits of the areas within which the members or any class of members of the fire brigade shall ordinarily reside for ensuring that the services of the members or such class of members of the fire brigade may be readily available;
(d) all other matters which he considers necessary for rendering the fire brigade an efficient fire-fighting force.
4. Auxiliary fire brigade. - The State Government may raise an Auxiliary fire brigade in any area in which this Act is in force and enrol volunteers or other persons as members of such brigade on such terms and conditions as it may think fit.