(1) The Director/Chief Fire Officer or any member of the Fire Force who is in charge of a fire fighting operation may, if in his opinion it is necessary so to do for the purpose of extinguishing fire in any area, – 6 – requisition and take possession of any fire fighting property in the possession of any local authority or any institution or individual.
(2) As soon as may be after the fire fighting operations are over, the Director/Chief Fire Officer or the member in charge of the fire fighting operation, as the case may be, shall release the property taken possession of under sub-section (1) from requisition and restore the same to the local authority, institution or individual from whose possession such property was taken.
(3) Where any fire fighting 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/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/Chief Fire Officer shall refer the matter to the Magistrate having jurisdiction over the area in which the fire fighting 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 property would normally fetch if rented out for a similar purpose. The order of the Magistrate fixing the amount of compensation shall be final.