CHAPTER 92: FIRE PREVENTION
Section
General Provisions
   92.001   Installation of storage tanks for certain flammable liquids prohibited; exception
   92.002   Outdoor fire; burning for disposal
   92.003   [Reserved]
   92.004   Wood-burning stoves and chimneys
Fire Prevention Code
   92.015   Adopted; filed; applicability; short title
   92.016   Administration and enforcement
   92.017   Definitions
   92.018   [Reserved]
   92.019   Storage of explosives, flammable liquids and gases, district established; approval of building permits
   92.020   Modifications
   92.021   Appeals
Fire Department
   92.035   Fire Chief; office established; powers and duties generally
   92.036   Fire Chief; power as to repair or removal of fire hazards
   92.037   Firefighter’s Civil Service Commission
   92.038   Using or tampering with city fire equipment
   92.039   Riding upon fire apparatus
   92.040   Obedience to officers at scene of fire
   92.041   Key lock box system
Firemen’s Pension and Relief Fund
   92.055   Establishment and maintenance
   92.056   Board of Trustees
Fire Protection Service Assessments
   92.070   Legislative purpose; maintenance
   92.071   Definitions
   92.072   Administration
   92.073   Rates; fees; charges established
   92.074   Billing and collection of fees
   92.075   Charge or fee debt due city
   92.076   Assessment; rules and regulations generally
   92.077   Charges are responsibility of property owner; owner’s responsibility
   92.078   Protests
   92.079   Fire service fee Appeal Board
   92.080   Exemptions
   92.081   Restricted use of revenues; future rates and charges
 
   92.999   Penalty
Cross-reference:
   Building Code, see §§ 150.035, 150.036
   Giving false alarms and reports, see § 130.005
Statutory reference:
   Authority of Council to enact ordinances to provide for the elimination of hazards to the public safety and to abate public nuisances, see W.Va. Code § 8-12-5(23)
   Authority of Council to enact ordinances to prevent injury to the public or individual from anything dangerous; to regulate the keeping of gunpowder and other combustibles; and to make regulations guarding against danger or damage by fire, see W.Va. Code § 8-12-5(13) to (15)
   Authority to enact ordinances to protect the public safety, see W.Va. Code § 8-12-5(44)
   Plenary power of Council to provide for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, see W.Va. Code § 8-15-1
   State Fire Prevention and Control Act, see W.Va. Code §§ 29-3-1 et seq.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
§ 92.001 INSTALLATION OF STORAGE TANKS FOR CERTAIN FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS PROHIBITED; EXCEPTION.
   (A)   It shall be unlawful for any person to install in any residential district of the city, as designated on the official zoning map of the city, any fuel storage tank for the purpose of storing flammable liquids for use as motor vehicle fuels. The term FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS shall include gasoline and all other petroleum products used as fuel for motor vehicles; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall prohibit any person from installing a fuel storage tank for the purpose of storing fuel heating oil to be used solely for the furnishing of heat to dwellings or buildings located on the property on which such storage tank is installed.
   (B)   It shall be the duty of the Fire Chief to administer and enforce compliance with the provisions of this subchapter.
(1991 Code, § 8-5) (Ord. passed 7-5-1979) Penalty, see § 92.999
§ 92.002 OUTDOOR FIRE; BURNING FOR DISPOSAL.
   (A)   (1)   (a)   Fires to dispose of natural, untreated, and unprocessed materials (such as tree trimmings, grass, leaves, and similar garden waste) are permitted inside the city limits on the following days and times:
            1.   5:00 p.m. Thursdays to 7:00 a.m. Fridays.
            2.   5:00 p.m. Fridays to 7:00 a.m. Saturdays.      
            3.   5:00 p.m. Saturdays to 7:00 a.m. Sundays.
         (b)   All such fires are to be fully extinguished by 7:00 a.m.
      (2)   (a)   Prior to such fires, a permit must be applied for and received from the Chief of the Elkins Fire Department or a designee thereof. The Fire Chief shall have discretion in issuing these permits and may require changes to the proposed burning plan as necessary to reduce the risk of harm to life and property.
         (b)   Before such fires are ignited, the area immediately surrounding the material to be burned shall be cleared of other flammable material for a distance sufficient to ensure that the fire will be contained. This safety strip shall in no event measure less than ten feet from all sides of the material to be burned.
         (c)   Fires shall be attended at all times. The issuance of permits does not relieve holders thereof from their responsibility to monitor wind and other conditions that may necessitate the cancelling or early extinguishing of otherwise permitted fires. Elkins Fire Department personnel also have the authority to order the extinguishing of any fire, permitted or not, when in their judgment it poses a risk to life or property.
   (B)   Fires to dispose of non-natural materials, including but not limited to paper, garbage, lumber and other construction debris, and other refuse, are prohibited, even if contained in a burn barrel or similar container.
   (C)   Fires to clear grasslands or forests are prohibited.
   (D)   Small fires set for the purpose of food preparation or for providing light or warmth, the area around which has been cleared of flammable materials in the manner described above, are allowed whenever wind and other conditions do not render them unsafe.
   (E)   Any person who sets or causes to be set any fire in violation of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined an amount set forth by Council from time to time.
   (F)   Any person who sets or causes to be set any fire that escaped the safety strip and causes damage to the lands or property of another is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined an amount set forth by Council from time to time.
(1991 Code, § 8-6) (Ord. passed 3-7-1963; Ord. 296, passed 3-3-2022) Penalty, see § 92.999
Statutory reference:
   For corresponding provisions of state law, see W.Va. Code § 20-3-5
§ 92.003 [RESERVED].
§ 92.004 WOOD-BURNING STOVES AND CHIMNEYS.
   (A)   Building permit required. No owner, agent or tenant in the city shall commence with the installation of any outside wood- or coal-burning stove or appliance unless such person first obtains a building permit from the Building Inspector.
   (B)   Prohibition against burning trash, refuse or other debris in boiler units or otherwise. No person shall within the city burn either in a boiler unit or other container any trash, plastics, debris, garbage, refuse, gasoline, rubber, materials treated with petroleum products, or materials other than wood and/or coal and/or coke and/or wood pellets or other commercially produced products devised specifically for burning in fireplaces, stoves or boiler units.
   (C)   Smoke stacks. All smoke stacks for boiler units shall extend one foot or more above the highest point of the roof to which the smoke stack is attached or the building which the boiler serves. Furnaces should be located no less than 100 feet from any residence not served by the furnace. If located within 100 feet to 300 feet to any residence not served by the furnace, the stack should be at least two feet higher than the peak of that residence.
   (D)   Boiler units. No wood- and/or coal- and/or coke-burning boiler unit may be used within the city for any purpose during the warm months between the dates of May 1 through October 1.
(Ord. 068, passed 11-1-2007) Penalty, see § 92.999
FIRE PREVENTION CODE
§ 92.015 ADOPTED; FILED; APPLICABILITY; SHORT TITLE.
   (A)   This subchapter shall be known as the city’s Fire Prevention Code and there is hereby adopted, and incorporated by reference as if set out at length herein, for the purpose of prescribing regulations governing conditions hazardous to life and property from fire or explosion, that certain code known as the State Fire Code, including all statutes, codes and requirements referenced therein, as adopted and thereafter amended, by the State Fire Commission pursuant to W.Va. Code § 29-3-5, except such portions as are herein modified, and from the date on which this section takes effect, the provision thereof shall be controlling within the limits of the city.
   (B)   The Code adopted by this section shall be known and may be cited as the “Fire Prevention Code”.
(1991 Code, § 8-8) (Ord. passed 7-1-1965; Ord. passed 4-2-1970; Ord. passed 9-17-1992; Ord. 110, passed 4-1-2010)
Statutory reference:
   Authority of city to regulate the erection, construction, repair or alteration of structures of wood or other combustible material see W.Va. Code § 8-12-13
   Authority of city to require permit for construction, alteration or repair of buildings or equipment, see W.Va. Code § 8-12-14
   Authority of Council relating to buildings, safety hazards and nuisances generally, see W.Va. Code § 8-12-5(23), (28)
   Authority of State Fire Marshal to promulgate rules relating to buildings, see W.Va. Code §§ 29-3-4a, 29-3-4b
   Authority to inspect private premises, see W.Va. Code § 8-12-15
   Fire Prevention and Control Act, see W.Va. Code §§ 29-3-1 to 29-3-30
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