The current State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) was created in 2008 after its duties were moved from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to the Virginia Department of Fire Programs (VDFP). Code of Virginia § 9.1-206 directs that the Executive Director of the Department of Fire Programs appoint a State Fire Marshal to carry out the provisions of the Statewide Fire Prevention Code. The Statewide Fire Prevention Code is an administrative code that regulates fire safety in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

SFMO’s budget is funded through a combination of General Fund dollars appropriated by the Virginia General Assembly and revenue from fees as set forth in the Statewide Fire Prevention Code. SFMO also, in the past, has received funding from contracts with other Virginia state agencies. Over the past decade, VDFP and SFMO staff have noted the office is continually operating at a deficit, forcing it to make cost adjustments and hold vacancies to balance the budget. The fees that SFMO can charge have only seen minor adjustments since 2009, and none since the 2015 code development cycle. During that time, however, the cost of conducting the inspections related to those fees has increased noticeably.

SFMO can charge fees in two areas: fireworks and blasting, as well as annual compliance fees. The services mandated in the Statewide Fire Prevention Code were analyzed by comparing costs estimated from SFMO reported data contained in its record management system to revenues calculated from the fees listed in the SFPC. Costs were calculated using fixed and variable factors. The fixed amounts are derived from SFMO’s annual Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) technology, vehicle, and salary costs. The variable factors use inspection reports to estimate the travel time, hours worked, and the number of inspectors typically utilized for each inspection type. Data was analyzed from FY 2023 through FY 2025.

VDFP, and SFMO, understand the General Fund dollars should primarily cover expenses related to General Fire Code Inspections of General Assembly-mandated inspections. The deficit noted below does not consider the total amount of General Fund dollars allocated for these operations but instead focuses solely on the cost of inspections and fee revenue. However, the research conducted indicates that fee adjustments, while likely to reduce this deficit, will not eliminate the deficit entirely.

The analysis concluded that average annual inspection revenue was $193,158.33 and annual average costs were $997,220.54 leaving an annual deficit of $804,062.21 from inspections conducted by SFMO. The largest losses came from General Fire Code Inspections and Re-Inspections. The category of General Fire Code Inspections includes inspections of state mandated facilities, and general inspections conducted at commercial establishments in state-responsible localities. The Imagetrend data collection program was not set up to distinguish between mandated and nonmandated inspections prior to FY 2025.

In producing this report, several options for reducing the deficit were considered. Discussions between representatives of the Virginia Fire Service Board and the Board of Housing and Community Development reached a consensus on recommending one of these options. That option is to charge fees for voluntary general fire inspections, reinspections, and fireworks retailers in state-responsible localities. Voluntary general fire inspections would encompass any annual statewide fire prevention code inspection that is requested or conducted in a commercial occupancy where the State Fire Marshal is the authority-having-jurisdiction, either by request of the owner or when a substantiated complaint is made.