Fire Service Act 1979

Where any person dies or sustains injury or damage and the death, injury, or damage is wholly or partly attributable to – the failure of the Commission or a brigade or an officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent of the Commission or a brigade to perform or properly perform any function imposed on it or on him by or under this Act; the improper exercise by the Commission or a brigade, or by any officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent of the Commission or a brigade, of any power conferred on it or on him by or under this Act; or the contravention by the Commission or a brigade or any officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent of the Commission or a brigade, of any provision of this Act or the regulations, being a provision that prohibits, whether conditionally or unconditionally, the Commission, brigade, officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent from doing any act – the Commission shall, except as provided in subsection (2) and subject to the defences and other incidences ordinarily applicable in proceedings in tort, be liable in tort in respect of the death, injury, or damage, but no such brigade, officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent shall be so liable unless it is proved by or on behalf of the plaintiff that the brigade, officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent in failing to perform or properly perform a function referred to in paragraph (a), in the improper exercise of a power referred to in paragraph (b), or in contravening a provision referred to in paragraph (c), acted, or, as the case may be, failed to act, in bad faith.

Subject to subsection (4), the Commission is not liable for any death, injury, or damage if the death, injury, or damage is attributable wholly or partly to any act or failure to act by a brigade or an officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent of the Commission or a brigade if the act or failure to act occurred in the course of, or was directly connected with, any operation specified in subsection (3) unless it is proved that the brigade or the officer, fire-fighter, employee, or agent of the Commission or a brigade acted, or, as the case may be, failed to act, in bad faith.

The operations referred to in subsection (2) are those directed to extinguishing, or preventing the spread of, a fire or reducing the risk of a fire occurring, or to the training of persons in the carrying out of any of those operations.

Nothing in subsection (2) affects any liability of the Commission under the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 or any duty of the Commission at common law towards any member of the Fire Service.

Every member of a brigade is taken to be a member of the Fire Service for the purposes of this section whether or not the person receives any remuneration as such member.