California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Calatayud v. State of California, 55 Cal.App.4th 295, 64 Cal.Rptr.2d 255 (Cal. App. 1997):
"As a general rule, persons have a duty to use due care to avoid injury to others, and may be held liable if their careless conduct injures another person." (Knight v. Jewett (1992) 3 Cal.4th 296, 315, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d 2, 834 P.2d 696.) The firefighter's rule is an exception to that general duty. "[A] special rule has emerged limiting the duty of care the public owes to firefighters and police officers. Under the firefighter's rule, a member of the public who negligently starts a fire owes no duty of care to assure that the firefighter who is summoned to combat the fire is not injured thereby. [Citations.] Nor does a member of the public whose conduct precipitates the intervention of a police officer owe a duty of care to the officer with respect to the original negligence that caused the officer's intervention. [Citations.]
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