Wisconsin and Fire Extinguishers

This afternoon I received a $138.00 fine from a police officer who patrols a Wisconsin River on behalf of the DNR.
I have a 14 foot Jon Boat in which plywood carpeted floors are installed. The gas tank sits on top of the floor and is not enclosed. The officer told me that anytime modifications, such as placing a floor on top of the aluminum are made, a fire extinguisher is required.

Ironically, I have a similar boat in Winona, Minnesota and have been checked by a Warden and Wisconsin State Park Rangers on the Mississippi River and the issue was never raised.

My question is in your opinion was the officer correct regarding Wisconsin law.

Secondly, the floors for the boat in Winona are put in during the fall for late season fishing below the dams and the primary reason is to keep my feet warm. Again, per the officer, based on Wisconsin law I need an extinguisher.

I thought I would pass this along for clarification of the law and as an alert so none of you folks get hit with a three figure fine.

Best Regards,
2Fishy4U

My dad got handed a warning for the same thing about 4 years ago. The guy agreed the terminology was easy to misinterpret and let it go with a warning………….but I’ve known about this technicality for a while now. It’s definitely there and if they feel like stickin’ a guy over it, they certainly can. Sorry to hear you got cited.

We’ll I was discussing this with a warden too, seeing that I was feeling a bit testy, he said if it was enclosed I needed a fire extinguisher, I had one, but I was out for the sake of argument because he was kind of a ass.