2023 Connecticut General Statutes › Title 29 - Public Safety and State Police › Chapter 541 - Building, Fire and Demolition Codes. Fire Marshals and Fire Hazards. Safety of Public and Other Structures › Section 29-310. (Formerly Sec. 29-57). - Investigation of origin of fires or explosions. Order to remove combustible material or remedy flammable condition or fire hazard. Penalty.

(a) The Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection shall thoroughly investigate the cause, circumstances and origin of all fires or explosions to which the commissioner's attention has been called, in accordance with the provisions of this part, by reason of which any property has been destroyed or damaged, or any person injured or killed, and shall especially examine and decide as to whether such fire was the result of carelessness, design, an incendiary device or any other criminal act. The commissioner may take the testimony under oath of any person supposed to be cognizant of or to have means of knowledge in relation to the matters as to which an examination is being made, and shall cause the same to be reduced to writing and filed in the commissioner's office; and if, in the commissioner's opinion, there is sufficient evidence to warrant that any person should be charged with the crime of arson or any other crime, the commissioner shall forthwith submit such evidence, together with the names of the witnesses and all other information obtained by the commissioner, to the proper prosecuting officer. The commissioner may, in any investigation, issue subpoenas for the purposes of summoning and compelling the attendance of witnesses before the commissioner to testify. The commissioner may administer oaths or affirmations to witnesses before the commissioner, and false swearing therein shall be perjury. The commissioner, or a designee, may, in the performance of his or her duties, enter into and upon the premises or building where any fire or explosion has occurred and premises thereto adjacent in accordance with the provisions of section 29-311.
(b) Whenever it comes to the commissioner's knowledge or to the knowledge of any local fire marshal that there exists in any building or upon any premises combustible material or flammable conditions dangerous to the safety of such building or premises or dangerous to any other building or property, or conditions that present a fire hazard to the occupants thereof, the State Fire Marshal, or any local fire marshal, obtaining such knowledge, shall order such material to be forthwith removed or such conditions remedied by the owner or occupant of such building or premises, and such owner or occupant shall be subject to the penalties prescribed in section 29-291c, and, in addition thereto, shall suffer a penalty of one hundred dollars a day for each day of neglect, to be recovered in a proper action in the name of the state.
(1949 Rev., S. 3680; 1957, P.A. 516, S. 6; 1959, P.A. 560; 615, S. 23; P.A. 77-614, S. 486, 610; P.A. 81-429, S. 2; P.A. 88-130; P.A. 11-51, S. 108; 11-61, S. 91; P.A. 21-165, S. 8.)
History: 1959 acts clarified subpoena power of commissioner, changed “inflammable” to “flammable” and added conditions presenting a fire hazard to the grounds on which commissioner may order remedies; P.A. 77-614 replaced commissioner of state police with commissioner of public safety, effective January 1, 1979; P.A. 81-429 added provision requiring investigation of explosions in addition to fires, investigation where personal injury or death results and determination of whether the fire was the result of design, an incendiary device or other criminal act and whether any person should be charged with any crime, and deleted provision permitting state fire marshal to enter premises at any time of day or night, replacing it with provision allowing entry in accordance with Sec. 29-311; Sec. 29-57 transferred to Sec. 29-310 in 1983; P.A. 88-130 inserted Subsec. indicators and amended Subsec. (b) to increase the penalty from $10 to $100 a day; P.A. 11-51 amended Subsec. (a) to delete reference to Commissioner of Public Safety serving as State Fire Marshal and amended Subsec. (b) to change “commissioner” to “State Fire Marshal”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 11-61 amended Subsec. (a) to replace “State Fire Marshal” with “Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 21-165 amended Subsec. (b) to replace reference to Sec. 29-295 with reference to Sec. 29-291c and made technical changes, effective July 1, 2021.