Request By:
Honorable Dennis M. Clare
Attorney at Law
Fifth Floor
The Hart Block Building
730 West Main Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of July 30 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"Inquiry is made as to whether or not KRS 61.315 as amended by House Bill 488 of the 1980 regular session of the Kentucky General Assembly would provide benefits to a volunteer firefighter killed in the line of duty.
"By volunteer, I mean a firefighter who is employed but fights fires as a part of a volunteer fire department or fire protection district as created by Chapter 75 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes."
Our response to your question would be in the negative. Incidently, the 1980 amendment to KRS 61.315 merely changed the amount of the lump sum payment to any qualifying spouse. The pertinent part of this statute in subsection (1) reads as follows:
"(1) As used in this section, . . . 'fire fighter' means every full-time fighter who works not less than forty hours per week, employed by any county or city or by the state." (Emphasis added).
The term "employed" refers, we believe, to those fire fighters who are actually employed by the city, county or state.
A volunteer fire department is a private corporation independent of any city but which may contract with the city for fire protection as provided in KRS 75.050. See OAG 78-772, copy attached. As a consequence, members of a volunteer fire department cannot be considered employees of the city, county or state.
At the same time a fire protection district established pursuant to KRS 75.010 is a separate political subdivision as held in OAG 77-321 [copy attached] that also may contract with the city or county, etc. As a consequence, fire fighers of a fire protection district could likewise not be considered employees of a city, county or state.
Under the circumstances therefore, fire fighters employed by volunteer fire departments or by fire protection districts pursuant to Ch. 75 would not qualify for benefits under KRS 61.315.