(a) State forest officers shall have police powers similar to constables and other police officers throughout the State for the serving of warrants, summons, writs and other legal papers issued by any justice of the peace or court having jurisdiction in offenses against any law enacted for the protection of forest, brush, grass or wild lands, and they may arrest any person detected by them in the act of committing, or under such circumstances as warrant reasonable suspicion that such person is committing, or is about to commit an offense against any of the laws enacted for the protection of forest, brush, grass or wild lands in this State or any law, rule or regulation relating to the protection of any land, property, structure material or vegetation on lands under the administration or control of the Department. A state forest officer shall also have the power to make arrests of persons violating § 518 of Title 17 in the officer's presence or view or otherwise upon the issuance of an arrest warrant based on a showing of probable cause that the individual named in the warrant committed the violation. (b) In addition to the powers and duties assigned in subsection (a) of this section, each state forest officer may, in any part of the State: (1) Enter upon any land at any time for the purpose of performing duties in accordance with this title, and no action for trespass shall lie against a state forest officer or others employed by the officer while working under the officer's direction if in entering a property, they shall exercise due care to avoid doing unnecessary damage; and (2) Arrest on sight, without first procuring a warrant, any person detected in the act of committing an offense against any of the laws enacted for the protection of forest, brush or wild lands from fire, or when the officer has a reasonable cause to suspect that such person is committing or is about to commit some such offense, and upon such arrest to take the accused before a justice of the peace of the county for hearing and trial. (c) Each state forest officer shall have the control and direction of persons, material, equipment and property engaged in extinguishing forest fires within the district assigned to such officer, and such officer shall, upon discovering a fire on or approaching woodlands, forest or wild lands, or upon receiving report of such a fire has been reported to such officer take immediately such measures as are necessary to control and extinguish the same; (d) Nothing in this title shall be construed so as to relieve the owner or lessee of lands upon which fires burn or are started from the duty of extinguishing such fires so far as it lies within the owner's or lessee's power, and no owner or lessee of land or anyone with a present vested interest in such land shall receive compensation from the State for helping or assisting in the extinguishment of fires upon the lands to which the owner's or lessee's interest is attached. No person who is responsible for starting a fire shall receive compensation for helping to extinguish such fire.
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