WEST VIRGINIA FIRE DEATHS UP IN 2007

More people died in fires in West Virginia last fiscal year than ever before and this year is already off to a bad start.

A record 79 people died in fires between July 1, 2006, and June 30, assistant State Fire Marshal Reed Cook said. That total includes nine people who died in an apartment building fire in Huntington, four who died in a propane gas explosion at a convenience store in Ghent and five family members who died in a Falling Waters mobile home fire sparked by a kerosene heater.

Normally the state averages between 30 and 45 fire-related deaths per year. Cook couldn’t remember when the previous annual record of 78 deaths was set but said it’s been more than a decade.