State Fire Commission Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Senate Bill Aims To Standardize State Building Codes

The West Virginia Senate Government Organization Committee voted in favor of a bill that would standardize state building codes. Proponents of the bill said it would remove a liability for building owners.

Lawmakers took a step toward standardizing state building codes Thursday during a Senate Government Organization Committee meeting.

Building codes are currently created by the West Virginia Fire Commission, then adopted on the county and municipal level.

But Senate Bill 629 would cut out the middleman, clarifying that building codes adopted on the state level necessarily apply to all counties and municipalities within the state.

Under the bill, county and municipal governments would still be responsible for providing building code enforcement services.

While the bill would not address building code enforcement, it clarifies that, unless exempt, all buildings in West Virginia must adhere to state codes, regardless of whether code violations are addressed on the local level.

Sen. Chandler Swope, R-Mercer, voiced his support for the bill, which he said would reaffirm the importance of adhering to state codes.

“Having been in the construction business, I have experience in this area,” Swope said. “I really believe you’re doing property owners a favor by encouraging them to follow building codes, because … not following proper codes leaves the property owner at a very high risk.”

Members of the committee voted unanimously in favor of the bill, sending it to the Senate floor with the recommendation that it pass.

House Passes Bill to Help Volunteer Fire Departments

With the passage of their budget bill behind them, members of the House are working their way through a number of bills left on their agenda this legislative session. West Virginia Public Broadcasting took a closer look at two of the bills approved in the chamber Thursday.

Seventeen Senate bills were on third reading in the House Thursday and put to a final vote.

One of those was Senate Bill 255, which changes how vacancies in political offices are filled. The bill would require the appointed person be from the same party as the previous office at the time of his or her resignation, not at the time of election.

As it came through the Senate, several senators pointed to former Sen. Daniel Hall as the bill’s motivation.

Hall was a Democrat when elected to the chamber in 2012, but after the 2014 election, the senator switched parties, giving Republicans the majority in that chamber for the first time in over 80 years. In 2016, Hall resigned from the body and the West Virginia Supreme Court was left to rule on which party would fill that vacancy.

The bill passed on a vote of 87 to 10 in the House. All the no votes were from Democrats and from the single Independent member in the chamber.

Another bill considered in the House, Senate Bill 636, requires the State Fire Commission to begin a pilot program to address any problems within the state’s volunteer fire departments. These issues would be in the areas of training, recruitment, or retention.

Delegate Joe Statler, a Republican from Monongalia County, says volunteer firefighters are the first line of defense in the state, but many struggle to keep their doors open.

Republican Amy Summers of Taylor County questioned Statler about whether this pilot program might end up hurting the volunteer fire departments instead of helping.

“You don’t think that there’s any way that this pilot project could then say to these volunteer fire departments…you can’t function anymore, because you’ve been proven that…you’re not effective, or something of that nature,” Summers asked, “you think this is gonna help the volunteer departments succeed?”

“I actually do believe that it will help,” Statler answered, “If everybody goes into it with the attitude that we’re going to do what we can do to see where we have all these rules and regulations and all this training, and everything else in place, that I believe that this can be a good thing. My biggest fear is, is how many might want to try to get on the pilot program, and we can’t sustain that many people trying to pilot.”

Senate Bill 636 passed 95 to 3.

State Fire Marshal to Step Down for Post at DOC

West Virginia’s Fire Marshal announced Monday he’s stepping down from his post after more than 22 years in the Fire Marshal’s office.

State Fire Marshal Anthony Carrico will be leaving his current job to take over as a corrections program manager in the state Division of Corrections.

Carrico took over as acting Marshal in April of 2013 and became the office’s permanent head in September of this year. He said in a release he’d put his heart and sole into the agency, but was presented with a great opportunity at the DOC.

The State Fire Commission has schedule a special meeting for December 22 to discuss filling the vacancy.