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Permalink Reply by Regina Tribley on January 15, 2008 at 9:30am

My department will only bill a resident for a fire call if it is something their insurance is going to pay. We do bill for MVA's unless the people in the accident were driving through our townships and not from them. Billing for calls would definately add additional revenue to our department but our townships do not allow us to bill residents.

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Permalink Reply by Spanner 122 on January 15, 2008 at 9:57am

I have heard of this, but never seen it done here. 911 calls that Emergency Services of any kind respond to on major highways are billed to the individual(s) involved, such as for an MVC, but that is paid to the province.... the Fire Department here would bill the province, the province recovers costs from the individuals.

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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on January 15, 2008 at 4:45pm

The fire service should be no differant than the police department. For home alarms 2 times in 1 calander year to 1 residence should be a fee of $100 (and an additional $100 per occurance) This will ensure that the false alarms you receive from frequent flyers get reduced. For Structural fires, you can bill the homeowner so long as you understand you may never get payment. If they have homeowners insurance, great your in luck and can get paid. Do not think for 1 minute that you will not be challanged by the insurance company for money, so be wise and charge a fee thats not too huge compared to the job at hand. (fee should include foam, food, beverages, rehab (medical supplies) and then a flat fee after that for the department.) One way you can write the format is XX amount of dollars per man per hour, xx amount of dollars per apparatus per hour. You will need to specify in an specific format type bill. Car accidents when you get them are considered by the DEP as a HAZ MAT CALL if 1 ounce of fluid touches the pavement. (again if they have insurance) You can again charge per man, per apparatus, and then charge for pads, booms, speedy dry, and removal. Look into it, especially of you have a department hurting for money. It could be another step to making your department a better place.
Be forewarned, if a homeowner doesn't have insurance, and can not pay, drop it, and consider it a loss. If you persue homeowners who dont have the means of paying through not having insurance, your department will be considered thugs, and your PR will go down.

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