Man chooses not to pay fire protection fee, house allowed to burn down

This can't be the right way to go about this.

I guess I'd be curious as to what percentage of homeowners with this payment option pay up in advance.

 

This is so wrong on so many levels.

You bill the guy after the fact. If it's $4,000, so be it. Put him on a payment plan.

What if something or someone was alive in that house?

 

That's kind of where I was at with this from the beginning. Firefighters are safety officials, not utility workers. It's not like they refused to pick up the guy's trash because he didn't pay his bill.

 

So I pay the $75, and my house catches on fire. I call 9-1-1. Do they then look through a list of paid/unpaid addresses before they send out the trucks? And if so, how much time does that take and how much more burns?

 

You mean like the three dogs and a cat that were killed in the fire?

 

The thing about fire departments, the cost isn't so much in responding to fires, its in the training, the upkeep and overall ability to respond to emergencies. Fire departments aren't like electricity, you turn it on when you need it, turn it off when you don't.

 

It's like insurance. If you let your car insurance expire, you can't get into an accident, roll up to the Geico offices and say, "Here is the premiums I would have paid to be covered, now pay up on the accident." He rolled the dice and sadly, he lost.

As long as the fire department ensured that the fire did not spread beyond the landowner's property and ensured that there were no people inside of the burning house, I am fine with them sitting there and watching it burn.

 

Actually many rural fire departments have gotten so much federal grant money, they are floating in cash. New trucks new gear. Many places have had problems with the local water system not being able to handle the demand of the new trucks.
i just wonder how much grant money south fulton fd has gotten

 

This is true.

 

Lo siento, IJAG.

Do firemen go in after pets anyway?

 

My town has special gear for animals on every truck. Oxygen masks designed to fit over snouts. They've also been trained in animal cpr

 

I think this is the answer. Because I assume if you pay the $75 each year, that's all you pay. Period. So if it costs $100,000 in water, hours, etc. to put out the fire, you still only paid $75 a year. Nothing more.

If you don't pay the $75, you should have the option of paying the entire bill.