No person or property owner shall have or maintain in the City any coal hole, basement opening, stairway or any other opening for like purpose in the sidewalk or street which opening is not protected by a grating provided with a limiting device or other covering to provide for the safe public passage when not open. Such limiting device shall prohibit the cover of any such opening from raising to an angle greater than eighty-five degrees and shall so function that such opening cannot willfully or negligently be left open. No person shall detach the limiting device so as to permit the cover of such opening to be propped open or left open unless an attendant is stationed on the street level to warn pedestrians or vehicles of the opening and to protect them from falling or stepping therein. When any such opening is to be left uncovered for any length of time and it is not practicable to station an attendant thereat, the opening shall be substantially fenced or barricaded off in such manner that pedestrians or vehicles shall not fall or step therein, and in addition, between sunset and sunrise, it shall be lighted.
(1978 Code Sec. 25-7.)