Subdivision 1. Failure to extinguish fire. Any person who starts and fails to control or extinguish the fire, whether on owned property or on the property of another, before the fire endangers or causes damage to the property of another person or the state is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Subd. 2. Failure to control permit fire. Any person who has a burning permit and fails to keep the permitted fire contained within the area described on the burning permit or who fails to keep the fire restricted to the materials specifically listed on the burning permit is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Subd. 3. Careless or negligent fires. Any person who carelessly or negligently starts a fire that endangers or causes damage to the property of another person or the state is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Subd. 4. Careless or negligent acts. Any person who participates in an act involving careless or negligent use of motor vehicles, other internal combustion engines, firearms with tracers or combustible wads, fireworks, smoking materials, electric fences, torches, flares, or other burning or smoldering substances whereby a fire is started and is not immediately extinguished before the fire endangers or causes damage to the property of another person or the state is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Subd. 5. Internal combustion engines. Any person who operates a vehicle in a wildfire area when the ground is not snow-covered with an open exhaust cutout, without a muffler, without a catalytic converter if required, or without a spark arrestor on the exhaust pipe; or any person who operates a tractor, chainsaw, or other internal combustion engine not equipped to prevent fires is guilty of a misdemeanor.

History: 1993 c 328 s 29