thereto, and all apparatus, hose, implements and tools of TITLE XIII. any and all kinds, which, at the time of the appointment of the commissioners aforesaid, were under the charge of any and all city officer or officers of the fire department in said city for the use and benefit of the department hereby created. And it shall be the duty of all persons and officers in possession of any books or papers, or of any property, real or personal, belonging to or set apart for, or in use by or for the fire department of said city, to deliver the same to the possession and control of the department hereby created. § 8. Whenever the said commissioners shall determine that any of the real or personal property of said depart- Sale of ment is not required for its purposes, they shall file with property. the comptroller of said city a list of such property, and within thirty days thereafter the same shall be disposed of as the common council may direct, and the proceeds thereof shall be paid into the treasury to the credit of said department, and may be drawn as directed by the common council for the purpose of purchasing other real or personal property for said department as may be directed by said. common council. engineers, etc. § 9. The said commissioners shall have power to select a secretary, chief and assistant engineers, and as many offi- Secretary, chief cers, clerks, foremen, engineers, drivers, inspectors and and assistant bell-ringers as may be necessary, provided that the salaries. of such employees, in the aggregate, shall not exceed the amount annually raised by the proper officers for such purpose. The said employees shall at all times be under the control of said commissioners, and perform such duties, as may be imposed upon them by the said commissioners, and the chief clerk in the building bureau of the department of fire and buildings shall be known and designated as the superintendent of buildings, and shall have charge Superintendent under the direction of the commissioners of said department, of said building bureau, and such matters connected there with as existing laws relative thereto provide. § 10. The salary of the firemen appointed by the said commissioners shall be eight hundred dollars per annum.* of buildings. Salary of fires. § 11. The aforesaid officers and men, with their apparatus of all kinds, when on duty, shall have the right of way Right of way at at any fire and in any highway, street or avenue, over any and all vehicles, of any kind, except those carrying the United States mails, and any person in, or upon, or owning any vehicle who shall refuse the right of way, or in any * Common Council authorized to increase salaries not to exceed one thousand dollars per annum, Laws of 1877, Chap. 459. TITLE XIII. Return of members, etc. List of active firemen. Misdemeanor way willfully obstruct any fire apparatus or any of said officers while in performance of duty, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable to punishment for the same. § 12. The names of the members of the present fire department, regularly enrolled at the time of the passage of this act, shall be returned by the present chief engineer of said department, under oath, to the clerk of the common council of said city of Brooklyn; and all such members who shall faithfully perform their duties until regularly discharged by said commissioners and not otherwise, shall be entitled to the benefits of the firemens' insurance fund provided for in this act. § 13. It shall be the duty of the present fire commissioners, immediately after the passage of this act, to make, or cause to be made, a correct list containing the names of all those persons who, at the time of the passage of this act, were regularly enrolled as active firemen on the books of the common council, or the fire commissioners, and who were, at the time aforesaid, performing the duty of active firemen of the said city, and the list aforesaid shall be submitted to the said commissioners appointed under this act. It shall be a misdemeanor for any person not so enrolled or fireman to wear employed, or appointed by the said department, to wear uniform of, etc. the whole or any part of the uniform or insignia prescribed to be worn by the rules and regulations of the department, or to do any act as firemen not duly authorized by the commissioners duly created, or to interfere with the property or apparatus of the fire department in any manner, unless by the authority of the department. No person holding office under this act shall be liable to military or jury duty while performing his duty as a fireman. for person not a Exemption. Regulation as § 14. It shall be the duty of said commissioners to make to uniform, etc. suitable regulations under which the officers and men of the department shall be required to wear an appropriate uniform and badges, by which, in case of fire and at other times, the authority and relations of such officers and men may be known, and the commissioners shall have power, in their discretion, on conviction of a member of the department for any legal offense or neglect of duty, or violation of rules, or neglect or disobedience of orders, or incapacity or absence without leave, or any conduct injurious to the public peace or welfare, or immoral conduct, or other breach of discipline, to punish the offending party by reprimand, forfeiting or withholding pay for a specified time, or dismissal from the department, but no more than ten days' pay shall be forfeited and withheld for any offense. York fire By Brooklyn or § 15. In case there should hereafter be any fire in the city TITLE XIII. of New York, which, in the opinion of the commissioners Requisition for of the New York fire department, or a majority of them, aid by New shall require the presence and co-operation of a greater department. number of officers or men or apparatus than may be at the command or under the control of said New York fire department to extinguish the said fire, it shall be the duty of said New York fire commissioners, and they are hereby empowered to request, in writing, the fire commissioners of the city of Brooklyn to assist them with officers, men and ap paratus, or either of them, from the said city of Brooklyn, to aid in putting out and extinguishing the said fire, and it shall be the duty of the said fire commissioners, when so called upon, to furnish the same. And in case there shall hereafter be a fire in the city of Brooklyn, which, in the New York. opinion of the fire commissioners of said city, shall require the presence and co-operation of a greater number of officers or men or apparatus than may be at the command or under the control of said fire commissioners to extinguish said fire, it is hereby made the duty of said fire commissioners, and they are hereby authorized to request, in writing, the commissioners of the New York fire department to assist them with officers, men and apparatus, or either of the same, to aid in putting out the said fire, and it shall be the duty of the said New York fire commissioners to furnish the same; and in case any expense is incurred by the said commissioners of the city of Brooklyn, in aiding the said New York fire commissioners, as hereinbefore provided, the amount of such expense, when duly certified under oath by the fire commissioners of the city of Brooklyn to the said New York fire commissioners, shall be paid to the city of Brooklyn by the city of New York; and in case any expense is incurred in furnishing the aid provided in this act by the said New York fire commissioners to the said fire commissioners of the city of Brooklyn, it shall be the duty of the city of Brooklyn to refund the same to the city of New York, when the same shall have been duly certified under oath by the said New York fire commissioners. persons § 16. The said department shall provide for protection Arrest of against fire, and may provide for the arrest of all persons committing who may, at or near any fire, commit or attempt to commit crimes at fires. any crime against the laws of this State, or may violate any rule or any regulation of said department. Pulling down § 17. When a building shall be on fire in said city, the commissioners, or in their absence the chief engineer, may buildings. order such building, or any adjoining building to be pulled down or otherwise destroyed, if he shall deem it likely to convey the fire to another building. TITLE XIII. Action against § 18. Any person who shall be or shall have been injured or damaged by reason of the pulling down or destruction city for injuries of any building in said city, for the purpose of preventing resulting from. the spreading of fire, may institute against the said city an action to recover compensation for such injury or damages; and in case a final judgment be recovered in such action against the city, the amount so recovered, with interest, and all the costs and expenses of the city in the defense of such suit, shall be paid out of the revenue fund. Inspection of buildings. 66 Firemen's insurance fund." Pensions. §19. The commissioners shall inspect all buildings, and it shall be lawful for any of the inspectors, for such inspection, to enter into and upon all buildings, livery or other stables, boats or vessels, and place where any gunpowder, saltpeter, hay, rushes, firewood, board, shingles, shavings, or other combustible materials may be lodged; and he shall give such directions, in writing, as he may deem necessary, relative to the removal thereof; and in case of the neglect or refusal on the part of the owner or possessor of such combustible materials, or the owner or occupant of said premises, places or vessels, or either of them, to remove or secure the same within such time, and in the manner directed by the said commissioners, the party offending shall forfeit and pay fifty dollars, and the further sum of ten dollars for every twenty-four hours' neglect to remove or secure the same after being so notified. § 20. All fines imposed by the commissioners upon members of the fire department, by way of discipline, and collectable from pay or salary, and all rewards, fees, proceeds of gifts and emoluments that may be paid and given for account of extraordinary services of any member of the department (except when allowed to be retained by said member), and all moneys received for penalties, under the provisions of this title, shall be paid into the treasury to the credit of the firemen's insurance fund. The payments so made shall constitute and be kept as a fund to be called the "firemen's insurance fund," and the president of the department and the commissioners of the sinking fund are hereby declared to be the trustees of the said fund, and they shall have power, and it shall be their duty, from time to time, to invest the same, in whole or in part, as they shall deem most advantageous for the objects of said fund; and they are empowered to make all the necessary contracts and take all necessary remedies in the premises. § 21. Any member of the fire department, who shall, while in the actual performance of his duty, and by reason of such performance of duty, and without fault or misconduct on his part, become permanently disabled, physically or mentally, so as to be unfitted to perform duty, and any TITLE XIII. such member who shall after ten years of membership become superannuated by age, or rendered incapable of performing duty by disease contracted without misconduct on his part, may be placed on the pension roll of the firemen's insurance fund, and granted and paid a pension of not exceeding three hundred dollars per year from the said fund. If any member of the department, while in the actual dis charge of duty, shall be killed, or shall die, from the effect of any injury received by him while in the actual discharge of said duty, or shall die, after ten continuous years in the service of the department (such death not being caused by misconduct on his part), leaving a widow, the name of such widow may be placed on such pension roll, and a like pension granted and paid to her from said fund, so long as she remains unmarried. If such member dying as aforesaid, shall leave any minor child or children, but no widow (or if a widow, then after her death), the name or names of such child or children, under the age of eighteen years, may be placed on said pension roll, and a pension from said fund granted and paid to such child or children; if more than one, to be divided equally between them. Such pension or share of pension to cease on the said child or children respectively arriving at the age of eighteen years, or whenever earlier discontinued by order of the commissioners. In every case the commissioners shall determine the circumstances thereof, and order payment of the pension to be made by draft, signed as the said trustees shall direct; but nothing herein contained shall render any payment of said pension obligatory upon said commissioners or the said trustees, or chargeable, as a matter of legal right, upon the said fireman's insurance fund. The commissioners, in their discretion, may at any time order such pension, or any part thereof, to cease. retention of § 22. The commissioners, for meritorious and extraordi- Meritorious nary services rendered by any member of the department services, in the due discharge of his duty, may permit such member rewards for. to retain for his benefit any reward or present tendered him therefor; and it shall be the cause of removal from any department for any member thereof to receive any such reward or present without notice thereof to the commissioners. Upon receiving said notice, the said commissioners may either order the said member to retain the same, or shall dispose of it for the benefit of the firemen's insurance fund. 23. The building limits, within which all buildings to Fire limits. be hereafter erected shall be built of brick, stone or material other than wood, shall comprise the fire limits as now established by law, or as these limits shall hereafter be ex |