(a) No person shall leave in or on any street or alley, sidewalk or public place in the City, from dark to daylight of any night, any excavation, or any fuel, earth, sand, lumber, building material or other substance, which may belong to him or be in his care or custody or be intended for his use, and which may cause an obstruction without placing and maintaining thereon during such time such lighted lantern or lanterns as may be sufficient to cast light on the whole of such obstruction or excavation.
(b) The owner or occupant of any premises, before which such obstruction or excavation exists as well as the contractor or the person in charge of the work, is charged with the duty of seeing that such lighted lantern or lanterns are so placed and maintained.
(1972 Code §18-1-21.)