Every owner, operator, lessee, or other person in charge of any apartment house, roominghouse, motel or hotel heretofore or hereafter constructed, or any occupant thereof, who becomes aware of any fire or smoldering combustion of an unwarranted or insidious nature which is not confined within equipment designed for fire or which is a hazard to the apartment house, roominghouse, motel or hotel, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor if he shall fail to report said fire or smoldering combustion without delay to the local fire department.
Ca. Health and Saf. Code § 13006.5