Chapter 58

(a) Every applicant for a license issued by the State Fire Marshal shall inform the State Fire Marshal of the applicant's residential address and provide the applicant's email address to which the State Fire Marshal can send electronic notifications and other messages. Every lice…

The State Fire Marshal may create and appoint committees, each of which shall consist of no more than 13 members unless otherwise provided by law. The members of any committee shall serve at the pleasure of the State Fire Marshal and may be paid per diem and necessary travel and …

The State Fire Marshal shall exercise general supervision over local investigators of fires and fire prevention inspectors. Whenever the State Fire Marshal has reason to believe that the local inspectors are not doing their duty, the State Fire Marshal or the State Fire Marshal's…

Beginning on April 1, 2016, and each year thereafter, the Office of the State Fire Marshal shall report to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government, the Senate Appropriations Committee on General Government and Information Technology, and the Fiscal Research Di…

The State Fire Marshal shall see that all laws he is responsible for administering are faithfully executed and, to that end, the State Fire Marshal is authorized to adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 150B of the General Statutes in order to enforce, carry out, and make effect…

The Office of the State Fire Marshal shall be a public office and the records, reports, books, and papers thereof on file therein shall be accessible to the inspection of the public, except that the records compiled as a part of an investigation for the crime of arson, that of un…

All hearings and investigations undertaken by the Office of the State Fire Marshal as required by this Article may be conducted by the State Fire Marshal personally or by one or more employees in the Office of the State Fire Marshal or, if requested by the State Fire Marshal, one…

In any contested case involving the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the State Fire Marshal may designate a member of his staff to serve as a hearing officer. When the State Fire Marshal is unable or elects not to hear a contested case and elects not to designate a hearing offic…

(a) This section applies to any person who is subject to licensure by the Office of the State Fire Marshal. (b) Whenever the State Fire Marshal finds a violation of any of the provisions of this Article, the State Fire Marshal may, in addition to or instead of suspending or revok…

(a) Any order or decision made, issued, or executed by the State Fire Marshal is subject to review in the Superior Court of Wake County on petition by any person aggrieved filed within 30 days from the date of the delivery of a copy of the order or decision made by the State Fire…

Every document executed by the State Fire Marshal, in pursuance of any authority conferred on him by law and sealed with his seal of office, may be used as evidence and may be recorded in the proper recording offices, in the same manner and with like effect as a deed regularly ac…

Whenever the State Fire Marshal or any employee of the Office of the State Fire Marshal is requested or subpoenaed to testify as an expert witness in any civil or administrative action, the party making the request or filing the subpoena and on whose behalf the testimony is given…

The Director of the State Bureau of Investigation, through the State Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, and the chief of the fire department, or chief of police where there is no chief of the fire department, in municipalities and towns, and the county…

The Director of the State Bureau of Investigation, or his deputy appointed to conduct such examination, has the powers of a trial justice for the purpose of summoning and compelling the attendance of witnesses to testify in relation to any matter which is by provisions of this Ar…

The failure of a person to comply with a summons or subpoena of the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation or his deputy under G.S. 58-79-10 shall be brought before a court of record and punished as for contempt in the same manner as if he had failed to appear and testify …

The State Fire Marshal, or the chief of fire department or chief of police where there is no chief of fire department, or the city or county building inspector, electrical inspector, heating inspector, or fire prevention inspector has the right at all reasonable hours, for the pu…

Any business entity licensed to sell automatic weapons as a federal firearms dealer that is in the business of selling firearms or ammunition and that operates a firing range which rents firearms and sells ammunition that desires to be exempt from the door lock requirements of Ch…

It shall be the duty of the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation to appoint two or more persons as deputies, whose particular duty it shall be to investigate forest fires and endeavor to ascertain the persons guilty of setting such fires and cause prosecution to be insti…

It is the duty of the State Fire Marshal, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the State Board of Education to provide a pamphlet containing printed instructions for properly conducting fire drills in all schools and auxiliary school buildings and the principal of every …

(a) The chief of any municipal fire or police department, county fire marshal or sheriff, or special agent of the State Bureau of Investigation may request any insurance company investigating a fire loss of real or personal property to release any information in its possession re…

(a) Whenever a fire department responds to a fire, the chief of that department shall complete or cause to be completed a fire incident report, which report shall be on a form prescribed by the State Fire Marshal. When such report is made without fraud, bad faith, or actual malic…

It is the duty of the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation to examine, or cause examination to be made, into the cause, circumstances, and origin of all fires occurring within the State to which his attention has been called in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 58-7…

No policy may be issued by a mutual company until the president and the secretary of the company have certified under oath that every subscription for insurance in the list presented to the Commissioner for approval is genuine, and made with an agreement with every subscriber for…

(a) Every person insured by a mutual insurance company is a member while that person's policy is in force, entitled to one vote for each policy that person holds, and shall be notified of the (i) time and (ii) place or method of remote communication, or both, for holding the comp…

Every mutual insurance company shall elect by ballot a board of not less than seven directors, who shall manage and conduct its business and hold office for one year or for such term as the bylaws provide and until their successors are qualified. The directors need not be residen…

(a) A mutual insurance company formed as provided in Articles 1 through 64 of this Chapter, in lieu of the contributed surplus required for the organization of mutual companies under the provisions of G.S. 58-7-75, or a mutual insurance company now existing, may, with the prior a…

(a) Any participating or dividend-paying company, stock or mutual or foreign or domestic, that writes other than life insurance or workers' compensation insurance and employers' liability insurance in connection therewith, may declare and pay a dividend to policyholders from its …

Every insurance company shall in its bylaws and policies prescribe the contingent liability, if any, of its members for the payment of losses, reserves and expenses not provided for by its assets, which contingent liability shall be in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 58-7-…

Every insurance company licensed to do business in this State shall print on each policy in clear and explicit language the full contingent liability of its members. (1945, c. 386; 1991, c. 644, s. 1; 1991 (Reg. Sess., 1992), c. 837, s. 2.)

Statewide multiline limited assessable mutual insurance companies are not subject to the provisions of G.S. 58-33-85(b). (2011-196, s. 12.)

No foreign or alien insurance company shall be licensed to issue in this State nonassessable policies unless it has a free surplus equal in amount to that required of a domestic insurance company, writing the same kind or kinds of insurance, and in addition thereto has fully comp…

When any policy of insurance is issued by any mutual insurance company or association other than life, organized under the laws of this State and such policy is assigned or pledged as collateral security for the payment of a debt, such company or association, by its president and…

(a) A domestic mutual insurance company may hereafter amend its charter in the following manner only: (1) A meeting of the board of directors shall be called in accordance with the bylaws, specifying the amendment to be voted upon at such meeting; (2) If at such meeting two third…

If any director, officer, or agent of a mutual insurance company, either officially or privately, gives a guarantee to a policyholder of the company against an assessment to which that policyholder would otherwise be liable, the director, officer, or agent shall be punished by a …

When a mutual insurance company is not possessed of cash funds above its reserve sufficient for the payment of insured losses and expenses, it must make an assessment for the amount needed to pay such losses and expenses upon its members liable to assessment therefor in proportio…

(a) Each branch of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Association of North Carolina ("Association"), created by Chapter 343 of the 1893 Private Laws of North Carolina, as amended, shall adopt articles of incorporation by a majority vote of its board of directors. (b) The articles …

The purpose of this Article shall be the creation of a State Volunteer Fire Department to provide protection for property lying outside the boundaries of municipalities, and to render assistance anywhere within the State of North Carolina, in municipalities or counties, in emerge…

The North Carolina State Fire Marshal shall be chief of the State Volunteer Fire Department; regular municipal fire chiefs shall be assistant chiefs; assistant chiefs shall be deputy chiefs; battalion chiefs, captains; lieutenants and privates shall hold the same position that th…

Any municipality having an organized fire department and desiring to participate in the establishment of the State Volunteer Fire Department, may do so by a resolution of the governing body accepting and endorsing the provisions of this Article: Provided, that acceptance shall no…

Any municipality which has accepted the provisions of this Article may withdraw its fire departments from membership in the State Volunteer Fire Department by resolution of the governing body thereof. Notice of such withdrawal shall be given to the State Fire Marshal and withdraw…

Municipalities endorsing this Article shall retain full and complete control and authority in sending or permitting firemen and apparatus to go beyond the limits of the municipality. The governing bodies of such municipalities shall designate and authorize a person, and at least …

The State Volunteer Fire Department shall not have authority to render assistance in any emergency occurring within a county which has not accepted the terms and conditions of this Article by resolution of the board of county commissioners: Provided, that nothing in this Article …

Any county desiring to accept the benefits of this Article may do so by resolution of the board of county commissioners. Any such county may thereupon make agreements and enter into contracts with respect to payment for services rendered by the State Volunteer Fire Department wit…

At no time shall the entire personnel or equipment of any municipal fire department be absent from the municipality in response to a call to another municipality, or other place lying at a distance exceeding two miles from the corporate limits, but there shall remain within the m…

When responding to a call and while working at a fire or other emergency outside the limits of the municipality by which they are regularly employed or in volunteer fire service, all members of the State Volunteer Fire Department shall have the same authority, rights, privileges …

The personnel of the North Carolina State Volunteer Fire Department shall consist of all active members of the organized fire departments, who are members of the North Carolina State Firefighters' Association, of municipalities whereof the governing bodies shall subscribe to and …

In case of injury or death of any member of the State Volunteer Fire Department arising out of and in the course of the performance of his duties, while such member is assisting at any emergency arising beyond the limits of the municipality with which he is connected, or while go…

Each county and municipality is authorized to make appropriations for the purposes of this Article and to fund them by levy of property taxes pursuant to G.S. 153A-149 and 160A-209 and by the allocation of other revenues whose use is not otherwise restricted by law. Sanitary dist…

In order to assist in carrying out the purposes of the Article the Governor may, from time to time, make provisions for assistance to the North Carolina State Firefighters' Association in a sum not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), in any one year, out of the …

Any owner, owners, proprietor or keeper of any hotel or other building of like occupancy who fails to comply with any of the foregoing provisions of this Article shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor and punished only by a fine of not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more th…