N.Y. General Municipal Law § 91-a: Arson investigation

§ 91-a. Arson investigation. 1. Every municipal corporation, the

office of fire prevention and control, and any two or more municipal

corporations jointly, are hereby authorized and empowered to investigate

and to take such action as may be required to formulate task forces,

teams, fire and/or police investigative units to investigate any case of

a burn injury or wound sustained as reported pursuant to section 265.26

of the penal law, and to ascertain the cause of fires or explosions of

suspicious origin within the municipality or participating

municipalities, pursue necessary investigation thereof and assist in the

preparation and prosecution of cases stemming from any alleged criminal

activity attendant to such fires or explosions. In the case of a joint

endeavor by two or more municipal corporations, the share of the costs

to be borne by each such municipal corporation shall be fixed by

contract. The expenditure of moneys for such purpose by a municipal

corporation shall be deemed a lawful municipal purpose and the moneys

appropriated for the purpose shall be raised by tax upon the taxable

real property within the municipal corporation in the same manner as

moneys for other lawful municipal purposes. Each municipal corporation

is hereby authorized to accept and disburse grants of public or private

money or other aid paid or made available by the state or federal

government for such purpose or purposes.

2. Where an investigative unit formed by this section has investigated

a fire and such fire is suspected to have been ignited by a cigarette

and not caused by arson, the investigative unit shall forward to the

office of fire prevention and control within fourteen days of completing

the investigation into such fire information detailing, to the extent

possible: (a) the specific brand and style of the cigarette suspected of

having ignited such fire; (b) whether the cigarette package was marked

as required by subdivision six of section one hundred fifty-six-c of the

executive law; and (c) the location and manner in which such cigarette

was purchased.