Firefighters Let Home Burn Over Unpaid Fee

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

Seriously?

Yes seriously. How come the 30%-50% of my income that goes to the government isn't being used to pay for fire service in my area? How come that instead of trying to find out where I am the operator has to verify weather or not I paid a due, which for all I know could have been lost in the mail? Certain things need to be free market and others need to be socialism or whatever you want to call it. Fire service in and of itself should not be run by any free market policies.

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Not unless it's spelled out in the policy somewhere

They've already agreed to pay for part of it. The insurance company that is.

Originally Posted by FRPLG

To me it comes down to this. It costs money to run a fire department. Putting out the fire in this case, to me, presents a pretty damn clear endangerment to the funding of the fire department. Blame a dumb policy that allows something like this to happen. Don't blame the fire-fighters and their bosses. They have to keep open for business for the greater good. Putting out fires for free works against that. It just does. At the end of the the day they chose not to do something that might end up costing them way more than just one fire. I can't fault them for that. Is it more decent to put the fire out and watch everyone else stop paying the fees and therefore have to curtail the service? Not to me it isn't. They had to choose between two crappy choices.

How are you going to stay in business when no one feels like they can trust you anymore? Look at all this national exposure. Do you think anyone is going to want to fund these guys after this? They would have been much better off reaching a settlement after the fact like every other subscription service in Tennessee. They sacrificed long term financing for short term gain. Instead of getting a first round pick in two years they decided to take a 7th round pick this year.

Fire chiefs: We won't watch a home burn » Knoxville News Sentinel

Blount County residents who fail to subscribe to fire services for $110 will be presented with a hefty bill after firefighters finish their duties at a house fire.

McClanahan said it amounts to $2,200 for the initial call and $1,100 for every hour past the first two that firefighters are on the scene.

Wheeler said his department has no set fee but does ask the homeowner to assign to the fire department any insurance money designated for compensating the fire department.