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:
(A) 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 and at all practices and drills, and during all hours when such personnel are on duty:
(B) 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;
(C) 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 in the successful fighting of fire;
(D) He or she shall have supervision over all repairs to apparatus and the charge of all supplies, and shall issue them upon his or her own discretion or upon the authority of the Common Council to the units of the Fire Department, taking from them the receipt 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, or the fire apparatus used by the Department requires attention or repairs, he or she shall make a report and recommendations to the Common Council unless the repairs needed are of such character that will require immediate attention;
(E) 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; and
(F) He or she shall be responsible for the keeping of necessary records for the Fire Department, which shall be subject to the inspection of the Mayor and members of the Common Council at any time. Such record shall list and note, inter alia, the state of repair of all property belonging to the Fire Department. He or she shall record and report monthly to the Common Council a statement of all fires occurring since the previous report, the units and personnel responding to alarms, the loss and insurance as far as ascertaineds the causes of any such fires, together with such suggestions as he or she may deem advisable to bring the number of fires to a minimum. He or she shall also keep at his or her office such books or other records as the Common Council may prescribe.
(Prior Code, § 11-33)
Statutory reference:
Removing structures when necessary to prevent spread of fire, see W. Va. Code 8-15-1 and 8-15-2