(Perry Gerenday | Getty Images)
Last month, two West Virginia Regional Jail correctional officers were arrested for setting fire to the former governor’s mansion in Beckley. That property, which is now owned by Gov. Jim Justice’s family, was set to be demolished.
That sensational fire and the background of its perpetrators shines a spotlight on an issue that frequently makes local news in the state but is less talked about from a systemic perspective: structure fires.
It has felt like a regular occurrence over the last few years that when I open my browser and read West Virginia news, I see a report about a fire that happened in the middle of the previous night. Sometimes it’s a vacant structure that was burned. But the reports are also tragic at times, costing lives.
Just this week, a house fire in Jefferson County, claimed one life and put two other people in the hospital. Last week, the same thing happened in Weirton. And earlier this year in Kanawha County, five children escaped from a house fire. Those are just a few examples.
These news reports often end the same way — there’s little information on the cause of the fire, officials will say, and an investigation is underway. But very rarely do we get more information later about the cause. That’s not to knock reporters — there’s a lot to cover. Unless it’s arson, a follow-up about the cause of the fires might not fit into the nightly news cycle.
But when I see these stories, it’s impossible not to think about how easily I could be a victim of one of these fires. I’ve watched friends displaced when their apartment building burned down. I’ve argued with my own landlords about safety hazards in the buildings where I’ve lived to no avail. Thousands of West Virginians are in similar — and in many cases worse — circumstances to me. So how do we improve these circumstances when the systems that should exist to protect us in an emergency don’t have proper oversight or regulation?
Last year, a house fire in Charleston gained national news because of the tragic circumstances surrounding efforts to extinguish it. When fire departments came to put out the blaze, they struggled to find a working fire hydrant, ultimately attempting to tap three where the water pressure wasn’t strong enough to hook up a hose before they received aid from other fire departments.
The homeowner’s dog died in the fire. In addition to a lawsuit that was recently settled against West Virginia American Water for the faulty hydrants, the blaze also led to long term, much needed change in other ways — it got the Legislature to do something.
Following that fire, the Public Service Commission launched an investigation that found more than 5,000 hydrants across the state needed to be replaced because of their age. And it found widespread deficiencies in water utilities’ regular testing and inspection standards for hydrants. The Legislature passed a law this year to strengthen hydrant standards.
I want to see that same quick, decisive action from government officials — even something as minimal as an investigation or report — about the structure fire epidemic and the socioeconomic factors that contribute to it.
Some of those factors lie at the intersection of several justice lenses. Integral to them are issues of housing equity, utility regulation and environmental concern. Vacant structure fires happen in the winter when unsheltered people are seeking a refuge from the cold. The fires they start for cooking or warmth can spread throughout the house and pose risk to surrounding occupied or vacant homes.
Much of West Virginia has old, substandard housing, with outdated electrical wiring and poor heating, insulation or weatherization. People without adequate heating might overload their systems with portable space heaters, or not follow best practices when using heaters, which can lead to fires. Space heaters are involved in over a thousand house fires each year.
Fires can also start through human error in owner- and renter-occupied homes, like a tipped candle or accidents in the kitchen. And of course arson is another important element. Tragedies like that are going to happen. But what are our leaders doing on a systemic level to limit the factors that make them possible and ensure the damages and losses from them are as minimal as they can be? There have been little efforts from our leaders to limit these dangers through better regulation, adequate inspections or efforts to make certain that people are afforded the right to live in safe, modern and affordable homes. The action that does come seems to often be too late.
Cities should confront the vacant structure fire problem and homelessness from various angles. Warming shelters should remain open in the winter — and not only in the most extreme weather conditions. We need to find ways to develop low-barrier, long-term housing for homeless individuals. The Legislature should pass legislation to give counties funding to hire inspectors to ensure rental properties are up to code and have adequate heating.
West Virginia does have a codified tool to address vacant structures. Three years ago the Legislature passed a bill directing the Department of Environmental Protection to create a program to help cities demolish vacant, dangerous structures. But as is often the case, more funding is needed to ensure the program’s success.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the brave people who risk their lives to fight fires in the state but who are also continuously underfunded.
Nearly all of West Virginia’s firefighters are volunteers. None of them, or other emergency responders in the state, have the permanent funding they need to adequately serve our communities. After years of requests from fire departments (and several failed attempts at passing bills in years past), lawmakers passed a bill during the 2024 session to give volunteer fire departments $12 million a year from lottery tax revenue. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to meet the needs of first responders, but relying on lottery tax revenue is unwise given that it’s a regressive tax that could fluctuate in the years to come.
Combatting the structure fire problems in West Virginia is a chance for a win-win. We can support emergency services, address safe and affordable housing, and save lives at the same time.
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