Thread: Homeowner Who didn't pay fire fee

Sick. And the fact that they call themselves first responders is a joke to the profession.
If they do not pay the fee then send them a bill in the event you respond to their address but at know time do you do nothing because of a fee.

The people who live in town are covered through property taxes. I would be curious to know if they let delinquent tax properties burn.

When I'm called to duty God,
Wherever flames may rage,
Give me strength to save a life,
Whatever be it's age.
Help me to embrace a little child,
Before it is too late.
Or save an older person from,
The horror of that fate.
Enable me to be alert,
To hear the weakest shout,
And quickly and efficiently,
To put the fire out.
I want to fill my calling and,
To give the best in me,
To guard my neighbor and,
Protect his property.
And if according to your will,
I have to lose my life,
Bless with your protecting hand,
My children and my wife.

And apparantly you can add, check to see if they are paid up.

Sending a large bill after service is an option and have an ordinance that applies unpaid bills as tax liens. That said, the local populace opted for a different policy/law, which is still their right, until the US Fire Administration takes it on. This topic also discussed here.
http://www.beltwaytalk.com/showthrea...=6632#post6632

There will be a LOT more to this story.
Maybe insurance and/or union labor requirements.

Kinda agree that you don't let the house burn for the price of water. But, the department and city have to insure the firefighters - and, that can't be cheap.

Also, we will probably find that this chump is a militant individualist or something.

There will be a LOT more to htis story.

I am certain that there is more to the story than what we have read but 911 call comes in and you are looking up if someone paid their bills. Unacceptable. The politicians failed their community, the fire department failed their community and the citizens failed their community.

Bottom line, life safety is number one priority. Everything else comes last. When does it stop. Is the $75 just for fire dept. or is it a fee paid for emergency serices. Guy has an automobile accident, fire dept rescue shows up first, do they refuse treatment until the ambulance shows up because of $75. Lame.

What I had heard via callers on the radio, is this area, considered rural, had this fee structure in place for many years.
The previous Fire Chief was more forgiving of fee delinquincy within the community, and if the need arose, would expect payment within 24 hours of the call if not paid current, etc.

Evidently there is a new Chief in town that took a hard line to latency, even though leniency had been the time tested standard of the community.
The responders were sent to protect paid-up adjacent property owners from damage, not the affected fee-delinquent owner. Sad.

I discovered a few years ago that I also live in a rural fire district. contract with city fire to provide service, paid out of a special tax district levy. contract with city comes up for renewal every few years. costs gone up, but requires majority of voters in the fire district voting and majority of the voters voting to raise the levy to match increased costs of the contract at renewal time. Only comes up for vote every couple years. tax increase voted down 3 times now the past 6 years.

Contract can be terminated by either party at any time. Standoff and stalemate. We owe several years of increased costs in back taxes not approved by RFD voters. Last time the increase was voted down, I asked the fire marshall what the outcome was-he said they laid off a couple guys, couldn't afford them any more-guys that were kept on got the salary increases. 2 less firefighters to respond to an incident, goody goody.

Other thing is-yes. they will come, but unless there is someone in the house, they'll let it burn and just keep it from spreading to neighboring homes. Since the RFD voters are so unwilling to pay enough to provide full service. life in a red antitax rural area. I've had house fires on three sides of me in the past 8 years-immediately adjacent or within 2 houses. am I concerned, you bet! am I frustrated with bullheaded antitax voters in my rural fire special tax district? YES!!!!!! If I could pay individually the increased cost, I'd do so happily, but I can't. It's a line item on the property tax bill. Can't go up unless the tax bill goes up for everybody in the fire district, which requires voter approval.

Originally Posted by alevin

I discovered a few years ago that I also live in a rural fire district. contract with city fire to provide service, paid out of a special tax district levy. contract with city comes up for renewal every few years. costs gone up, but requires majority of voters in the fire district voting and majority of the voters voting to raise the levy to match increased costs of the contract at renewal time. Only comes up for vote every couple years. tax increase voted down 3 times now the past 6 years.

Contract can be terminated by either party at any time. Standoff and stalemate. We owe several years of increased costs in back taxes not approved by RFD voters. Last time the increase was voted down, I asked the fire marshall what the outcome was-he said they laid off a couple guys, couldn't afford them any more-guys that were kept on got the salary increases. 2 less firefighters to respond to an incident, goody goody.

Other thing is-yes. they will come, but unless there is someone in the house, they'll let it burn and just keep it from spreading to neighboring homes. Since the RFD voters are so unwilling to pay enough to provide full service. life in a red antitax rural area. I've had house fires on three sides of me in the past 8 years-immediately adjacent or within 2 houses. am I concerned, you bet! am I frustrated with bullheaded antitax voters in my rural fire special tax district? YES!!!!!! If I could pay individually the increased cost, I'd do so happily, but I can't. It's a line item on the property tax bill. Can't go up unless the tax bill goes up for everybody in the fire district, which requires voter approval.

Sorry to hear about your fire protection dilemma. Wouldn't your homeowner's insurance go down enough to cover the fire tax? i.e. Rural areas are rated by protection level. Could that be used as a selling point to get it passed? Unfortunately due to the economy many municipalities are facing these kinds of choices re providing services outside the city limits. Many rural areas in Alabama have no fire protection except for volunteer fire departments. Most run on donations only and have old equipment donated from some of the better financed city fire departments.

Originally Posted by Scout333

Sorry to hear about your fire protection dilemma. Wouldn't your homeowner's insurance go down enough to cover the fire tax? i.e. Rural areas are rated by protection level. Could that be used as a selling point to get it passed? Unfortunately due to the economy many municipalities are facing these kinds of choices re providing services outside the city limits. Many rural areas in Alabama have no fire protection except for volunteer fire departments. Most run on donations only and have old equipment donated from some of the better financed city fire departments.

I grew up in Northern VA and yes, there were volunteer fire departments everywhere-I never had a clue there might be a problem with protection. Donations and fundraising-firemans parades in every small community in the fall-it was great fun for a kid to march in the parades on Friday nights and spend money on carnival rides and games afterwards til the parade winners were announced, then go home late on the band bus. good memories.

times have changed. the accountant who negotiates the contract with the city sends a letter out to the votership everytime it comes up for vote-but doesn't phrase the consequences of a levy increase in a positive way, as in current homeowner rates would stay the same or go down. He says-if its not approved, homeowner insurance will go up or might not be able to get it.

that kind of argument is ineffective when half the fire district is renters who don't carry the homeowners insurance anywaym who could easily move if got burned out (and who don't realize they need to vote if they want to maintain high level fire protection-the absentee landlord can't vote, doesnt live in the tax district).

Other problem is a boomer and older issue-societal demographics. many in the neighborhood are elderly, people on fixed incomes and who are not able-bodied enough to become members of a volunteer fire department as an alternative. It may still come to that for those who are able-bodied enough (there are some), but how to get the funds to get that going is another question. so for now, we just live with reduced protection.

took me years to wrap my own mind around the actual situation and took concentrated effort at finding the right people to talk to, to even understand the ins and outs of our dilemma and how we got here, much less what to do about. we don't have a forum for the people inthe district to talk to each other about it, just the accountant mailing out a single letter prior to election every couple years. how many people even bother reading it?

Allie,
Heard private Fire Services were using some variant of this.
*Blue for Effect only*

http://www.flameguardgel.com/

Luckily in our very rural and very red county, our Fire and EMT levies have passed every 2 years it comes up for renewal or increase, since we have lived here (almost 30 years). The state used to supply some funding, but that has dried up and gone to the bigger cities.

We have no city to fall back on and the entire county is covered by numerous township VFD's, but township VDF's do assist each other if they are closer to the structure fire. Besides church, all our charitable donations go to our local VFD. The only reason a structure may burn to the ground is the distance it might be from the nearest township VFD.

EDIT: Also our forest fires aren't near the intensity of what ya'll out west face, because of the tree types we have. If our woods caugth fire, it wouldn't be near the intensity to affect the house. Alot of fires are started on purpose every by the local farmers and major landowners to burn off the low brush. It's kind of a harbinger of spring.

Eh well, I don't live in the timber. think rural long narrow subdivision-old, houses close together, lots of landscaping trees, surrounded by undeveloped unmanaged grassland on one side-open hillside, with haymeadows on the other side. not worried about the hay meadows-they get lots of water, grazing and cutting. Its the vacant lots unmanaged, housing adjacency and open hillside 2 lots over, that create the concerns for rapid spread, especially with wind.

I hadnt heard about the blue gel, would be wonderful for a summer cabin in the woods used intermittently. thanks for that one, will look into it further.