(a) If an active member of a volunteer or auxiliary fire force or volunteer crash rescue or ambulance corps is killed or dies from injuries received while in the performance of his or her duty there, shall be paid out of the fire fighter's relief fund of Rhode Island to the following dependents of the deceased person, the following sums of money:
(1) To the widow or widower or domestic partner beginning at the death, an annuity not exceeding three thousand six hundred dollars ($3,600) a year, payable in regular installments as may be determined by the board and continuing as long as he or she remains unmarried or not in a domestic partnership;
(2) An additional annuity of one thousand two hundred dollars ($1,200) a year, payable in regular installments determined by the board, for each child of the deceased person during the time that the child is under the age of eighteen (18) years, or over that age and physically or mentally incapacitated from earning;
(3) If there is any child and no widow or widower or domestic partner or the widow or widower or domestic partner dies later, the sum and annuity that should have been payable to the widow or widower or domestic partner had there been one or had he or she lived, to or for the benefit of the child or of the children, in equal shares during the previously stated time;
(4) If there is any child and the widow or widower or domestic partner remarries or enters into a domestic partnership, in lieu of the previously stated annuity to him or her, an annuity not exceeding one thousand two hundred dollars ($1,200) to or for the benefit of each child during the previously stated time;
(5) If there is no widow or widower or domestic partner and no child, the total sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) payable in a lump for the benefit of the father and/or mother of the deceased, if not dependent upon him or her for support at the time of his or her death; and
(6) If there is no widow or widower or domestic partner and no child, the sum of three thousand six hundred dollars ($3,600) payable in regular installments by the board of fire fighter's relief, to or for the benefit of the father or mother of the deceased, if dependent upon him or her for support at the time of his or her death, and beginning at the death and continuing so long as the beneficiary is unable to support himself or herself and does not remarry or enter into a domestic partnership, an annuity not exceeding three thousand six hundred dollars ($3,600) a year, payable in regular installments determined by the board.
(b) The provisions of this section shall be retroactive to July 1, 1988.
History of Section.
P.L. 1984, ch. 333, § 2; P.L. 1985, ch. 289, § 1; P.L. 1992, ch. 470, § 1; P.L. 2007, ch. 510, § 15.