ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4005
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegate Ashley)
[By Request of the Executive]
[Passed March 14, 1998; in effect ninety days from passage.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article three,
chapter twenty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the
authority and duties of the director of the division of
forestry with regard to forest fires, and limiting the
liability of certain persons for activities performed in
connection with fighting forest fires under the
supervision of the director.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article three, chapter twenty of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. FORESTS AND WILDLIFE AREAS.
§20-3-4.Authority and duties of director of the division of
forestry
and others as to forest fires; expenditures for forest fire control; limited liability of certain
persons fighting forest fires.
Upon receiving notice of any fire which is injuring or
endangering forest land within the state, the director of the
division of forestry or his or her duly authorized
representatives shall employ all necessary means to confine,
extinguish or suppress the fire. For these purposes, any
temporary or permanent employee of the division of forestry or
any other agency of the state and any volunteer shall, under
the general supervision of the director of the division of
forestry, have the right and authority to enter upon public or
private lands, to destroy fences thereon, to plow such lands,
and in case of extreme emergency, to set backfires thereon. No
person performing or reasonably attempting to perform any of
the activities authorized by the preceding sentence under the
general supervision of the director of the division of
forestry, whether as a temporary or permanent employee of the
division of forestry or any other agency of the state or as a
volunteer, shall be liable in damages for the death of or
injury to any person or for damage to any property as a result
of his or her performance of such activities to an extent
greater than the applicable limits of any liability insurance
coverage available to such person under any liability insurance
policy or policies issued to the division of forestry, any other agency of the state involved in suppressing the forest
fire, any volunteer fire department of which such person was a
member and which volunteer fire department was responding to
the forest fire at the time of the incident alleged to have
caused such death, personal injury or property damage, or any
combination thereof. The limitation of liability established
by the preceding sentence shall not apply if the death,
personal injury or property damage alleged was caused by such
person's willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence or
reckless misconduct, or by a conscious, flagrant indifference
to the rights or safety of any person harmed by such conduct.
The director of the division of forestry and any duly
authorized representative may employ persons to detect fires
which may injure or endanger forest land and may likewise
summon or employ persons to assist in extinguishing such fires,
who shall be paid for the actual time so employed, at a rate
per hour to be determined by the director of the division of
forestry:
Provided, That the rate per hour shall not exceed
the rate per hour paid for any comparable labor or skills by
the division of forestry. Any person so summoned who shall
fail or refuse to assist in extinguishing any such fire shall,
unless such failure or refusal to assist is due to physical
inability, be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Expenditures for detecting, confining, extinguishing or suppressing fires described in this section shall be charged
against the state. The director of the division of forestry or
his or her representative shall prepare, as soon as
practicable, a sworn statement with the names of all persons
who were summoned or employed to assist in fighting such fires,
the time so spent by each, as well as the names of persons who
furnished equipment, subsistence or supplies, or transportation
therefor, and the amount of money due each for such services,
subsistence, supplies or transportation. Requisitions shall be
issued and payment of the sums due shall be made in the same
manner as is provided for the making of other expenditures by
the director of the division of forestry.