(A) (1) The office of Fire Chief is hereby established.
(2) The Fire Chief shall be the Chief of the Fire Department and the commanding officer thereof, and shall be responsible to the Mayor and the Council for the administration, training, discipline, morale and effective deployment and utilization of the members of the Department and for the maintenance and effective deployment and utilization of the property, equipment and apparatus of the Fire Department.
(B) The Fire Chief shall have all such powers as may be necessary and lawful to meet the responsibilities imposed upon him or her by this section, including, but not limited to, the following.
(1) He or she shall have absolute command, control, management, assignment to duties and supervision of every officer, member and employee of the Fire Department during a fire, at all practices and drills and during all hours when such personnel are on duty.
(2) He or she shall have absolute control, authority and command of the police officers present at the scene of any fire during the time and continuance of any fire or conflagration, and all orders issued by him or her to such police officers and to other persons present shall be by them explicitly obeyed and performed.
(3) He or she shall have supervision over the engine houses, trucks and all apparatus and equipment belonging to the Fire Department. He or she shall be responsible for the serviceable condition of all equipment belonging to the Fire Department and he or she shall be responsible that every piece of fire apparatus is equipped at all times with the necessary wrenches and all other equipment belonging to that piece of apparatus and necessary to the successful fighting of fire.
(4) He or she shall have supervision over all repairs to apparatus and the charge of all supplies, and shall issue them, at his or her own discretion or upon the authority of the Council, to the units of the Fire Department, taking from such units the receipts of the commanding officer of the unit to which the supplies are issued. He or she shall have sole control, management and command at fires and alarms of fire over all apparatus and equipment belonging to the Fire Department. Whenever any purchases are to be made and when the fire apparatus used by the Department requires attention or repairs, he or she shall make a report and recommendations to the Council unless the repairs needed are of a character which will require immediate attention.
(5) He or she shall have authority to direct the pulling down or destroying of any fence, house, building or other thing, if deemed necessary to prevent the spreading of a fire.
(6) (a) He or she shall be responsible for the keeping of necessary records for the Fire Department, which records shall be subject to the inspection of the Mayor and the members of the Council at any time.
(b) Such record shall list and note, inter alia, the state of repair of all property belonging to the Fire Department.
(c) He or she shall record, and communicate monthly to the Council, a report of all fires occurring since the previous report, the units and personnel responding to alarms, the loss and insurance as far as has been ascertained, the causes of any such fires and such suggestions as he or she may deem advisable to bring the number of fires to a minimum.
(d) He or she shall also keep at his or her office such books or other records as the Council may prescribe.
(1991 Code, § 8-16)
Statutory reference:
Authority of Council to give authority to Fire Department officers to pull down structures when deemed necessary to prevent spread of fire, see W.Va. Code §§ 8-15-1, 8-15-2
Authority of Council to provide for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, to procure proper engines and implements, to provide for the organization, equipment and government of a volunteer or paid Fire Department and the like, see W.Va. Code § 8-15-1
Authority of local Fire Departments, see W.Va. Code Ch. 29, Art. 3A
Authority to use fire equipment three miles beyond city limits, see W.Va. Code § 8-15-3
Paid Fire Departments and civil service, see W.Va. Code §§ 8-15-9 et seq.
Volunteer fire companies, see W.Va. Code §§ 8-15-4 to 8-15-8