C. Fire

• Author: Philip H. Osborne
• Profession: Faculty of Law. The University of Manitoba
• Pages: 353-354

Page 353

Many centuries before the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher was formulated, there was, in the common law, a special action on the case imposing strict liability on an occupier of land for damage caused by the escape of a fire under his control. The intensity of that strict liability is a matter of debate, but it was probably not applicable to a fire started by an act of God or the act of a stranger, since fires arising from those sources could not be characterized as fires under the occupier’s control. In 1774 the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act²⁶was passed. The Act sought to relieve occupiers from liability for fires that began accidentally on their land. Its general purpose was to inject some degree of fault as an essential element of liability for the escape of fire, but it was poorly drafted and its interpretation has been the subject of a great deal of unresolved debate.

The special action for the escape of fire has long since been overtaken by more modern tort principles and is no longer of...