All acts, whether general, special, local or special legislative charters, or parts thereof, in relation to any civil service measure affecting any paid fire department inconsistent with the civil service provisions of this article shall be, and the same are, hereby repealed insofar as such inconsistencies shall exist. It is intended by the civil service provisions of this article to furnish a complete and exclusive system for the appointment, promotion, reinstatement, removal, discharge, suspension and reduction of all members of all paid fire departments in all municipalities. The status or tenure of all members of any paid fire department, which members were employed on the effective date of this article, shall not be affected by the enactment of this article, but all such members shall be subject to all of the civil service provisions of this article with like effect as if they had been appointed members hereunder.
West Virginia Legal Code