WV Fire Marshal: VFD to Stay Closed until 'Deficiencies' Fixed

Chesapeake Volunteer Fire Department was removed last week from Kanawha County’s lineup of emergency service organizations responding to fire and first responder calls at the request of the State Fire Marshal.

The fire department must correct a list of 42 alleged deficiencies before it can reopen, authorities said.

The deficiencies listed ranged from 20 department members being unable to produce certification for training in skills needed for their VFD roles, to department vehicles lacking needed repairs and not carrying adequate supplies of fire hose or functioning self-contained breathing gear.

The list was included in a letter sent by State Fire Marshal Ken Tyree Jr. to Chesapeake Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steven Johnson on Tuesday, following a June 11 on-site evaluation.

Media outlets at the VFD on that date reported seeing State Police, Capitol Police and personnel from the fire marshal’s office entering the fire hall.

Tyree said in the letter to Johnson that he ordered “an immediate operational shutdown of the department until further notice.”

He also asked the Kanawha County Commission to issue an emergency order calling for the Kanawha Metro 911 Center to divert 911 calls normally assigned to Chesapeake to the volunteer fire departments in neighboring Marmet and East Bank.

“We were told there was a pending investigation and that Chesapeake VFD would not be responding to calls,” said Kanawha County Manager Jennifer Herrald. The Fire Marshal’s Office also told county officials that “we needed to notify other responding agencies and ask that they cover Chesapeake’s response area. We were told no other information,” she said.

“The Fire Marshal’s Office is not commenting beyond the evaluation report at this time,” Lawrence Messina, spokesman for the state Department of Homeland Security, said on Wednesday.

Deficiencies in training certification identified by Tyree and his staff included the department having 12 members who lacked CPR/first-aid training; four members without certificates for dealing with hazardous materials, and two members who could not produce Level I or Level II firefighting certificates.

Johnson was also unable to produce Level I and 2 fire officer certificates, according to the fire marshal’s letter.

Among mechanical shortcomings were past-due tests for water pumps and fire hoses, a fire engine with a non-functioning generator and an absence of first aid kits on tanker trucks.

In 2013, a state audit of the fire department showed that more than $9,000 in state funds could not be accounted for, and that nearly $600 had been used to pay a water bill for a Chesapeake car wash — one of three businesses owned by the VFD. The fire department later reimbursed the state for those items.

The audit followed complaints by then-Kanawha County Commission Dave Hardy about the fire department refusing to share financial records with the county after it failed to pay a fuel bill it owed under an agreement with KRTA, despite grossing $2.4 million in two years from the bingo games and raffle contests it hosted.

According to Gazette-Mail stories that appeared at the time, Hardy said that then-Chief P.J. Johnson, was drawing a salary of $56,000 from the department, while his father, the current chief, drew $30,000 annually for services rendered to an electronic communications company owned by the fire department.

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