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No Pay? No Play!
Here's another story of a homeowner who didn't pay the subscription fee for fire protection, believing that, if he had a fire, the fire department would come anyway.
He was wrong.
This follows the same line of thinking of districts who shut down their departments, believing that, if they needed fire protection, they could rely on mutual aid.
What is wrong with that thinking?
Read the story from Tennessee: http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Firefighters-watch-as-home-bur...
TCSS.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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if you own a house, you can afford $75/year. Most of us pay that in our local/state taxes, this area has broken it out separately.
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Permalink Reply by David Todd Lord on
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I myself wouldnt be able to just stand there and watch someones belongings burn around here, We dont do things like that we show up no matter what, and then we charge the insurance later and if they dont have insurance we dont get paid and we arent goin to chase you down to get our money we just let it go, I mean arent we here to protect lives and property not just to let it burn
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If things are that bad, move the hell out of Tenessee!
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Vic,
This idea has been implemented in many places where there is a subscription-based fire department. I've been a member of a volunteer department that operated in exactly this manner.
The bill was calculated on the actual costs and sent to the homeowner. Sometimes it was indeed in the 10's of thousands of dollars. Compared to the costs for totally replacing the home, it was still cheap for both the homeowner and the insurance company. The homewners being subscribers was cheaper for both.
The downside of not being a subscriber was so high for the insurance companies that they stopped writing fire insurance for non-subscribers, at least for the majority of homeowners and business owners in that district. We had something like a 90% subscription rate.
For places that get zero local tax dollars to suport the fire department subscriptions can be an effective way to provide at least some level of fire protection.
In my former department, we didn't charge for good intent non-fires like bells and smells.
Those costs were subsidized by the subscribers and the occasional non-subscriber fire fee.
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$150 penalty? Dude, I'd never pay the annual fee. this begs the question: how will the FD pay for it's operation with no one paying the fee? See my other post about how much a response actually costs and remember, for a rurual department they run a hell of a lot fewer calls.
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that's wonderful, but how do you buy equipment? Who pays for training? It's not fair that I pay my share, but freeloaders get the same benefits.
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Permalink Reply by Neal Arrington on
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I don't care I joined this profession to help irregardless.......
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Permalink Reply by Joel C Kelley on
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I need to interject here. How would the situation been different if there was a life safety issue, say, a trapped victim? Is there any duty to act in such cases? If a victim dies in a scenario like this, have we abandoned NFPA 1001? What then is our liability, both personal and organizational, when we let a victim perish while watching a home burn? Are civic leaders actually saying that our citizens do not have a right to publicly funded fire protection and rescue?
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My understanding (I've never been part of a department like this) is they will do rescues, but once the've emptied the building, they retreat to the first insured property and defend that.
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Sounds like a lot of folks out there are OK with this. I am not. Let's face it, if it weren't for tax monies, we wouldn't have apparatus, equipment, TIC's, bunker gear, or even Union cards. Our jobs are PUBLICLY FUNDED. If that is socialism, then turn in your gear and get the hell out of the game. I took an oath to protect lives and property, not to protect those who could pay. I have never responded on any alarm and turned my back on someone just because they didn't have fire or health insurance. I have scooped up the homeless heroine junkie, and put out car fires for people who were living out of those cars.
The more I think about this the more *&%@#$ I get! Paid or volunteer, Union or non, were are firefighters. That means we come when they call, and we do the job because we love to help others. So why all the sudden are we deciding who is woth helping and who isn't? Yes, in subscription areas, some will "roll the dice" and some will lose, but we are supposed to help those who call, without checking to see if their dues card is up to date!
Think about what we all got into this to do in the first place, and let's remember why we do what we do. The bean counters win when we start asking for our a victim's dues card. A victim of a fire should never become a victim of the fire Department.
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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on
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You get what you pay for. You don't get what you don't pay for. I have no problem with this at all.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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"Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton. "
""Anybody that's not in the city of South Fulton, it's a service we offer, either they accept it or they don't," Mayor David Crocker said."
It would appear that if you live IN the city of South Fulton, your fire protection is part of your local tax funded services and if you live OUTSIDE the city you need to subscribe.
The home owner didn't pay his taxes (but could have, was capable of but chose not to) this year and I have to wonder how many years he didn't pay the tax. I'm thinking he made a cost/benefit analysis and found out his math was all wrong. Oh well....
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