AN ACT MAKING IT UNLAWFUL TO OPERATE A STEAM GENERATING BOILER, USING WOOD, COAL, OR COKE FOR FUEL UNLESS EQUIPPED WITH AN EFFECTIVE SPARK ARRESTING DEVICE; DEFINING AN EFFECTIVE SPARK ARRESTING DEVICE, AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR THE VIOLATION THEREOF.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
It shall be unlawful for any owner of a steam generating boiler, using wood, coal, or coke for fuel, to use or operate such boiler or suffer or permit the same to be used or operated in or within three hundred (300) feet of forest land or other combustible vegetation or soil cover unless said boiler is equipped with devices that are effective in preventing the escape of sparks from the smokestack or firebox thereof.
An effective spark arresting device for the purpose of this act shall be deemed to be a spark arrestor which under any circumstances does not permit sparks to escape more than six (6) feet from the smokestack or firebox.
Any owner or operator of a steam boiler as aforesaid who shall operate or suffer or permit the same to be used or operated without effective spark arresting devices as provided herein, or who shall fail or neglect to provide the same shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction before a justice of the Peace or a Court of Common Pleas, be fined not less than twenty-five dollars (025.00) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00) for each offense. Each day or fraction thereof any boiler is operated in violation hereof shall be deemed a separate offense.
Nothing herein contained shall be construed as applicable to any boiler or boilers installed in or used in or with any locomotive or locomotive crane or wreck derricks subject to the jurisdiction of
the Bureau of Locomotive Inspection of the Interstate Commerce Commission, nor to the boiler of any railroad equipment moving on the rails of any company or corporation engaged in interstate commerce.