This just makes me sick!

[TinyChickenLady]

if firefighters responded to non-subscribers, no one would have an incentive to pay the fee.

Unfortunately that's reality. You have to pay for services rendered or go without. I don't like the fact but it is what it is and it's there for a reason. If they could afford to put out every fire, they would. But they can't do it for free.
Most of us on here can't do our jobs for free either. That's what people forget. Water isn't free. Their gear isn't free. The fuel in the pricey trucks isn't free. Would you really expect a firefighter to risk his life for yours by going into a burning building without any gear? I'd assume not. That's why those fees are in place, among other reasons....​

 

[bairo]

Quote:
I agree. This is not the same..but it reminds me. I was a paramedic for 10 years. I can not count the # of times we had to respond hot to a "sick person" in the middle of the ghetto. Every single time it was a fake call so they could get a ride to the county hospital to refill their meds. On countless occasions there was a call for a "real" emergency while we were on one of these runs. They had to pass it off to the next truck that doubled the response time. You can see the danger and frustration at this. So people know about the fee, decide not to pay and just figure they are "entitled" to service anyway. What if while the fire department was there, you had a fire at your house and you did pay your fee. Look at the additional response time to call an outside agency. You could loose everything just because the unit that could have responded was tied up with someone that feels like the cost of a cup of coffee a day is just tooo much. Its like paying insurance, none enjoy it but it is what it is. And twentynine is right...if everyone paid it, mabe they could afford another truck and grab a few more volunteers.

 

[Spookwriter]

I can't speak for all fire departments.

However, we charge no fee as such. There is a countywide tax levy
in place that does help to support us and other departments in the
county. It does not support us entirely nor is it intended to.

We receive funding from multipule sources. No one big item. But the
one single thing I am proudest off is the community support. This community
makes it a point to back us up.

We respond to every call without prejudice. You can be rich, poor, white, black.
You call, we come. We will do what we can safely do on any callout.

Mobile homes, certainly older mobile homes, are almost always a total loss. But
yes, we will still enter them to save a life if we can.

Let me go out on a limb here and ask each family here to support their local
fire department, police department. You never know when you may need them.

Spook...we aren't the bad guys.

 

[chickened]

I have met the same blatantly stubborn folks in my business, they adopt an attitude that come hell or high water by golly we are not paying that fee. They got what they paid for, maybe a lesson learned, I am sick of paying for the lazy stubborn people. 75 bucks is nothing, our local FD allows us to purchase lifeflight insurance for 90 bucks a year, it is billed out at $10,000.00 a ride or more. It is sad to sit and watch a house burn and you can bet they made sure no people or pets were in there.

 

[carolinagirl58]

As bad as I do feel for the people who lost their house, it's kind of the same thing as choosing to not purchase auto insurance and then getting mad at State Farm for not paying for your accident. Insurance (or fire protection fees) is always a gamble. You may pay it for years and never need it, but if you choose to NOT pay it you really can't blame anyone but yourself if something happens and you aren't covered. The fee really should be incorporated into their property taxes though and not give someone the choice of paying it or not. It costs a lot of money to run a fire station and if all the homeowners decided to just not pay it and expect free services, how could the station pay it's bills?

 

[Spookwriter]

A volunteer fireman died in the line of duty this week in
Charleston, West Virginia.

Another recent thread on BYC about an injured fire fighter in
Texas, I believe. Lost her arm?

These people stand there every single day prepared to put their
life on the line.

Please support them.

 

[NovaAman]

It is sad that they lost their home because they didn't pay 75 bucks... 75 is a lot for some people I realise that... BUT losing your home is more than that. As they said, they made sure no on was injured.

That being said, being that it was a mobile home, I wouldn't have put it out either. the older mobile homes, they say if it isn't out with in 3 minutes, its going to be a loss. I would just make sure the neighboring mobile homes would not go up.

I sure hope they had insurance. They can get a new mobile home and a fire extinguisher too. It won't replace the memories, but they can rebuild those in the new one. They will have a prayer from me tonight thou, that they can get past the grief of losing their home, and thankfully not their lives.

I think the FD should have a donation fundraiser/drive or something to help cover the cost of people who are on rocky finances and can't spare the 75 bucks.

 

[bairo]

Quote:
If they did not pay the 75.00, i bet they did not have insurance. I feel for them, I really and truly do..but at the same time that is how we learn (make your bed and lie in it)

 

[HarlansHollowFarms]

Quote:
I think that responsibility should be a community thing, however, in this day and age most people do not even know their neighbours....let alone know if they have an extra $75.00 to pay their fire service fee!

I think the fundraisers should benefit the fire department, not the other way around

 

[carolinagirl58]

Quote:
you are 100% right about that. When my mobile home burned in 1980, it took the fire department could do nothing but let it finish burning and make sure it didn't spread. They burn way too fast.