West Virginia Firefighters Threaten to Strike Over Liability Insurance

Volunteer firefighters in West Virginia are threatening to stop answering calls if the Legislature doesn’t exempt their supervisors from liability for injuries to firefighters.

West Virginia law states that a firefighter or any employee injured in the line of duty can sue the department or its officers if the employer deliberately sent the employee into a dangerous situation. Individual employees or firefighters can’t be sued

The West Virginia State Fireman’s Association says insurers are declining to provide broad form liability insurance coverage because of the possibility of lawsuits against supervisors. The WVSFA also says state courts tend ignore the immunity granted individual firefighters, who if they are the first at the scene of a fire automatically assume a supervisory role.

BrickStreet Mutual Insurance, which has been the sole writer of the coverage for volunteer departments, is not renewing policies, according to the WVSFA. Effective Sept. 1, the group says 129 volunteer departments are slated to lose their liability insurance and more will lose it every month until all have lost it by June 30, 2011.

The group says other insurance carriers have also declined to write the coverage.

The firefighters believe that a simple change to state law can solve the problem but the committee appointed to come up with a fix has not been able to reach an agreement, with some members believing that state law already sufficiently protects individual firefighters.

The WVVFA said its members may not respond to fire alarms if the statutory immunity is not made clear by Sept. 1.

This is the second insurance issue to blindside the state’s volunteer firefighters. Several months ago, BrickStreet Mutual said it was going to substantially hike their premiums workers compensation starting July 1. Gov. Joe Manchin stepped in to get the insurer to agree to hold off on increases to give the state time to work out a plan.

Topics Virginia West Virginia