Section 26. Requisitioning of Fire Fighting property.

(1) Where the Director or the Chief Fire Officer or any other Fire Officer of any Authority, who is incharge of a fire fighting operation requires fire fighting equipment or property of any other Authority or any institution or individual, he may by order requisition such equipment or property for the purpose of extinguishing fire in any area and take possession thereof from the Authority or any institution or individual, as the case may be. (2) As soon as may be, after the fire fighting operations are over, such officer shall release the equipment or property, taken possession of under sub-section (1) from requisition and restore the same to the Authority, institution or individual from whose possession such property was taken. (3) Where any fire fighting equipment or property is requisitioned under sub-section (1), there shall be paid to the owner of such property, compensation the amount of which shall be determined in accordance with the principles hereinafter set out, that is to say,- (a) where the amount of compensation can be fixed by agreement between the Director or as the case may be, the Chief Fire Officer and the owner of the fire fighting property, it shall be paid in accordance with such agreement; (b) where no such agreement can be reached, the Director or as the case may be, the Chief Fire Officer shall refer the matter to the Magistrate having jurisdiction over the area in which the fire fighting equipment or property was kept and the Magistrate shall, after hearing the parties and such other persons as he deems necessary, fix the amount of compensation taking into consideration the rent which the fire fighting equipment or property would normally fetch if rented out for a similar purpose. The orders of the Magistrate fixing the amount of compensation shall be final.