(a) The board of fire commissioners or, in the absence of such board, any corresponding authority of each town, city or borough, or, if no such board or corresponding authority exists, the legislative body of each city, the board of selectmen of each town or the warden and burgesses of each borough, or, in the case of an incorporated fire district, the executive authority of such district shall appoint a local fire marshal and such deputy fire marshals, fire inspectors and other fire code inspectors or fire investigators as may be necessary. In making such appointment, preference shall be given to a member of the regular or volunteer fire department of such municipality. Each local fire marshal shall be sworn to the faithful performance of his or her duties by the clerk of the town, city, borough or fire district and shall continue to serve in that office until removed for cause. Such clerk shall record his or her acceptance of the position of local fire marshal and shall report the same in writing to the State Fire Marshal within ten days thereafter, giving the name and address of the local fire marshal and stating the limits of the territory in which the local fire marshal is to serve.
(b) The board of fire commissioners or, in the absence of such board, any corresponding authority of each town, city or borough or, if no such board or corresponding authority exists, the legislative body of each city, the board of selectmen of each town or the warden and burgesses of each borough or, in the case of an incorporated fire district, the executive authority of such district may, upon the death, disability, dismissal, retirement or revocation of certification of the local fire marshal, and in the absence of an existing deputy fire marshal, appoint a person who holds a fire marshal certification issued pursuant to section 29-298 as the acting fire marshal for a period not to exceed one hundred eighty days.
(1949 Rev., S. 3669; 1955, S. 1993d; 1967, P.A. 567, S. 1; 1971, P.A. 569, S. 1; P.A. 95-13; P.A. 14-137, S. 2; P.A. 16-157, S. 2; P.A. 21-165, S. 12.)
History: 1967 act empowered executive authority of an incorporated fire district to appoint local fire marshals and deputies; 1971 act provided that local fire marshals serve until removed for cause; Sec. 29-45 transferred to Sec. 29-297 in 1983; P.A. 95-13 added Subsec. (b) allowing appointment of certified deputy fire marshal for up to 180 days in absence of local or deputy fire marshal; P.A. 14-137 amended Subsec. (a) to add provision re appointment of other inspectors or investigators; P.A. 16-157 amended Subsec. (a) to add reference to fire inspectors, replace “inspectors or investigators” with “fire code inspectors or fire investigators” and make technical changes and amended Subsec. (b) to replace “certified deputy fire marshal” with “deputy fire marshal”, effective July 1, 2016; P.A. 21-165 amended Subsec. (b) to replace “deputy fire marshal” with “person who holds a fire marshal certification issued pursuant to section 29-298”, effective July 1, 2021.
Annotations to former section 29-45:
Language of statute is sufficiently unequivocal to be mandatory but insufficiently specific to be self-executing. 185 C. 445. Held to be constitutional under Art. I, Sec. 1 of Connecticut Constitution. 192 C. 127.
Annotations to present section:
Cited. 209 C. 352.
Cited. 13 CA 1; 42 CA 13.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
6
cases, 1984–2017 · leading case:
Bartlett v. Krause, 551 A.2d 710 (Conn. 1988).
Bartlett v. Krause, 551 A.2d 710 (Conn. 1988).
· cites it 9× “General Statutes § 29-297, 12 passed in 1955 (then *361 § 1993d), concerns the appointment of local fire marshals and their deputies.”
Beccia v. City of Waterbury, 470 A.2d 1202 (Conn. 1984).
“to 1981) § 29-45, currently codified as § 29-297, provides: “Sec. 29-45. appointment of local fire marshals and deputies.”
Kohn v. Town of Wilton, 677 A.2d 985 (Conn. App. Ct. 1996).
· cites it 4× “In his complaint, the plaintiff alleged that, prior to being removed from the position of acting fire marshal, he was entitled to, and should have received, the just cause, notice and hearing protections afforded to “local fire marshals” as set forth in General Statutes §§…”
Edwards v. Code Enf't Comm., 534 A.2d 617 (Conn. App. Ct. 1987).
· cites it 2× “General Statutes § 29-297. The provisions of the fire safety code do not relate to the functions and duties of the defendant Code Enforcement Committee.”
AFSCME, Council 4, Local 2663 v. Dept. of Child. & Families, No. SC19166 Dissent (Conn. June 23, 2015).
· cites it 2× “In Bartlett, this court first concluded that the plaintiff had a property interest in her employment as a fire marshal because the state statute provided that the fire marshal could only be terminated for ‘‘ ‘cause.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.