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House committee reviews emergency-management draft that expands state forest-fire authority and tightens permit, reporting rules
Summary
The House Government Operations & Military Affairs committee examined Draft 3.2 of bill 26-0550, which designates the commissioner as state forest fire warden with authority to appoint special wardens and, in some circumstances, assume incident command; it also tightens reimbursement eligibility, recordkeeping and open-burning permit categories and raises contract concerns for private fire departments.
The House Government Operations & Military Affairs committee reviewed Draft 3.2 of bill 26-0550 on emergency management, focusing on new forest-fire provisions that shift authority and clarify permit and reimbursement procedures.
Tucker Anderson, Legislative Council, told the committee that Draft 3.2 (posted at 03:10 p.m.) removes earlier language linking emergency evacuation plans to individualized education programs and replaces it with a new section 7 designating the commissioner or designee as the state forest fire warden. "The commissioner is granted the authority to exercise the duties of town forest fire wardens," Anderson said, and may appoint special wardens, delegate state warden authority, and "take command and control of a forest fire...and act as the incident commander over all other fire officials" when resources or circumstances require.
The draft also designates the chief of the municipal fire department, fire district, or private fire department that has…
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