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88.10 AUTHORITY OF STATE FOREST OFFICERS.
    Subdivision 1. General authority. Under the direction of the commissioner, forest officers
are charged with preventing and extinguishing wildfires in their respective districts and the
performance of such other duties as may be required by the commissioner. They may arrest
without warrant any person found violating any provisions of sections 88.03 to 88.22, take the
person before a court of competent jurisdiction in the county charging the person so arrested,
and the person so charged shall be arraigned and given a hearing on the complaint. The forest
officers shall not be liable in civil action for trespass committed in the discharge of their duties.
All authorized state forest officers, fire wardens, conservation officers, smoke chasers, fire
supervisors or individuals legally employed as firefighters, may in the performance of their duties
of fire fighting go onto the property of any person, company, or corporation and in so doing may
set backfires, dig or plow trenches, cut timber for clearing fire lines, dig water holes, remove
fence wires to provide access to the fire or carry on all other customary activities necessary
for the fighting of wildfires without incurring a liability to anyone, except for damages arising
out of willful or gross negligence.
    Subd. 2. Arrest authority. Any forest officer may serve any warrant for the arrest of any
person violating any provision of sections 88.03 to 88.22.
History: (4031-15) 1925 c 407 s 15; 1957 c 322 s 1; 1967 c 146 s 7; 1978 c 735 s 2; 1986 c
444; 1993 c 328 s 19

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes