If a selectperson of a town or a mayor of a city is informed that a building, pile of wood, lumber, or bark, or any other property in the municipality, has been intentionally and maliciously set on fire or burned, a majority of the selectboard, or the mayor, may apply to a Superior judge, who shall inquire into the cause of the fire and the manner in which it was set and the property burned.
20 V.S.A. § 2835