Audit found state missing 50-year-old fire prevention mandate
West Virginia’s State Fire Commission is drafting a comprehensive fire prevention and control plan — the first in 50 years — after an audit found the state-mandated document had never been produced.
The state is one of the deadliest for house fires in the United States, according to the Associated Press, with an average of 32 people killed per year between 2009 and 2023.
An audit of the State Fire Commission in December 2025 noted that the commission had not compiled the plan state law requires to prevent those deaths.
State Fire Marshal Ken Tyree Jr., testifying before a Government Organization Committee in December, said he did not realize his agency was supposed to produce one comprehensive plan before the recent audit. He said his office is drafting the document now and plans to finish it in the fall of 2026.
Adoption would mark the first such plan in fifty years. When the State Fire Commission was created in 1976, state law charged it with developing a plan for fire prevention and control, including assessing manpower needs, the location of training centers, the location of water sources, and public education and information needs.