Section 37
SEC. 37. Chief of Fire Department.&mdashThere shall be a chief of the fire department who shall have the management and control of all matters relating to the administration, organization, government, discipline, and disposition of the fire-fighting force. He shall receive a salary of four thousand eight hundred pesos per annum, and shall have the following powers and duties: (a) He shall issue supplementary regulations not incompatible with law or general regulations issued by the proper department head of the National Government in accordance with law, for the government of the fire-fighting force. (b) He shall have charge of the fire-engine houses, fire engines, hose trucks, hooks and ladders, trucks and all other fire-fighting apparatus. (c) He shall have full police powers in the vicinity of fires. (d) He shall have authority to remove or demolish any building or other property whenever it shall become necessary to prevent the spreading of fire or to protect adjacent property. (e) He shall investigate and report to the Mayor upon the origin and cause of all fires occurring in the city. (f) He shall inspect all buildings erected or under construction or repair within the city and determine whether they provide sufficient protection against fire and comply with the ordinances relating thereto. (g) He shall have charge of the city telegraph, telephone and fire-alarm service. (h) He shall have exclusive power, notwithstanding any law to the contrary, to supervise and regulate the stringing, grounding and installation of wires for all electrical connection with a view of avoiding conflagrations, interferences with public traffic or safety, or the necessary operation of the fire department. (i) He shall condemn all defective electrical installations and shall take the necessary steps to effect immediate corrective action, informing the Mayor of the action thus taken. (j) He shall supervise the manufacture, storage, and use of petroleum, gas acetylene, gunpowder, and other highly combustible matter and explosives. (k) No permit for the construction or repair of buildings within the city shall be granted unless the plans relative thereto have been approved by the chief of the fire department. He shall have the power to alter or disapprove such plans as do not provide adequate protection against the occurrence of fires. (l) He shall have such powers and perform such duties as may further be prescribed by law or ordinance.