I'm only crashing near home from now on.
Fire Department bills me for nothing
- Thread starter Slono
- Start date
Johnny_M
Well-known member
I don't get it. The local FD is on the clock and getting paid. What does it matter if the accident happens to an out of towner, or a local? My taxes are paying my local FD to go out and do their job, and likewise, citizens of some other municipality are paying their FD to do the same. What's all this billing people from out of town nonsense?
awyala
Guest
I got a little history lesson when I lived out in the UK once....
I was walking along with my boss at the time; a knowledgeable fellow, when we passed a series of buildings, the last of which an old inn from the early 1800s. He stopped and tested me to see if I knew my history and asked what all those (what looked like badges) were on the front of the building at the entrance. I looked carefully at them, there were 3. They looked like metal Cub Scouts badges or something. I had no clue. Then he pointed over at several other local buildings (as we were in a very old neighbourhood). Again I had no clue why all these buildings had these badges on their entrances in plain site.
He then smiled at my ignorance and told me "Those badges we 'subscriptions' to the local fire department (at that time in history). If you didn't have any, the then fire department would NOT put our your flaming property! One had to pay in advance for the privilege, just in case your property caught on fire. It was an annual subscription and depending on how nervous a property owner you were, or how far away the local fire departments were, you may subscribe to multiple departments to make sure someone is not busy or arrives damn fast!
Just thought I would share that gem.
I was walking along with my boss at the time; a knowledgeable fellow, when we passed a series of buildings, the last of which an old inn from the early 1800s. He stopped and tested me to see if I knew my history and asked what all those (what looked like badges) were on the front of the building at the entrance. I looked carefully at them, there were 3. They looked like metal Cub Scouts badges or something. I had no clue. Then he pointed over at several other local buildings (as we were in a very old neighbourhood). Again I had no clue why all these buildings had these badges on their entrances in plain site.
He then smiled at my ignorance and told me "Those badges we 'subscriptions' to the local fire department (at that time in history). If you didn't have any, the then fire department would NOT put our your flaming property! One had to pay in advance for the privilege, just in case your property caught on fire. It was an annual subscription and depending on how nervous a property owner you were, or how far away the local fire departments were, you may subscribe to multiple departments to make sure someone is not busy or arrives damn fast!
Just thought I would share that gem.
lol. That's just nuts! "That's Jimmy's house on fire! C'mon guys, we gotta beat Company 376 there this time!" sweeeeet
-Jamie M.
Sabex
Well-known member
I enjoyed reading that.
I have to say it seems excessive to send a fleet of emergency personal for one downed rider and a dead dear.Yes I want emergency crew there when I go down and fine charge me if I am from out of town but for required use. Someone explain to me why TWO fire trucks and an ambulance is required for one downed rider. Seems to be poor judgement on the FD side.
Not doin much wtf...so they go for the ride
Houghtonator
Well-known member
No wonder people hit and run.....
suzuki2000
Well-known member
one of my neighbours across the street, a very nice elderly lady had her smoke detectors go off a few days ago. Apprently she left something on the stove and went into the garage... which she really should not have done.
neighbour behind her hears the alarm going off in the house, call s 911, then proceeds to come around the block to check things out.
in the end, no issue, shouldn't have left whatever it was on the stove. Neighbour I guess though he was being helpful, but I would be concerned the next time I burn a piece of toast.
In the end, the lady will receive a $400 bill from the town due to the call or what turned out to ber a false alarm.... irony is she is the 1st person that will receive this bill apparently and she is the mother of the Deputy Fire Chief
neighbour behind her hears the alarm going off in the house, call s 911, then proceeds to come around the block to check things out.
in the end, no issue, shouldn't have left whatever it was on the stove. Neighbour I guess though he was being helpful, but I would be concerned the next time I burn a piece of toast.
In the end, the lady will receive a $400 bill from the town due to the call or what turned out to ber a false alarm.... irony is she is the 1st person that will receive this bill apparently and she is the mother of the Deputy Fire Chief
Don't tax dollars pay for the Fire Dept? Am i missing something here?
It sounds like they need the extra cash to sustain their existence.
suzuki2000
Well-known member
Don't tax dollars pay for the Fire Dept? Am i missing something here?
tax dollars don't cover things anymore, yet they go up, additonal taxes come in the forms of user fees which seems to be the case here. Problem is when you are not a willing user, kind of feels like negative billing cable companies used to do.
We give you a service you didn't ask for, and we just up the bill
get used to it, public institutions have out of control budgets and make the shortfalls on user fees, which essentially taxes a tax...
Sent my son off to high school this year, no private school, this is a publicly funded school, and yes I definitely pay my fair share of taxes, yet for him to get his books, timetable, pay his "student fees"... it is just under $200.00 out of pocket, and this still doesn't cover potential costs and fundraising for extra curricular activities
So the right to education, as early as high school is only available to those that pony up the cash.... oh by the way, "cash only please" no cheques, credit, debit...
One girl in front of him dropped her stack of cash accidentilly and moved to the next line up, luckily my son saw the money on the floor, picked it up and sought assitance to find the rightful owner. Glad he has some morals becasue I know many people would have pocketed the money and the girl ahead of him wouldn't have been having too good of a day
Last edited:
I do not think there was anything unreasonable with this bill...
I pay my municipal taxes for Peel to have Fire standing by for me ... in case I have an emergency, my house is on fire, I need assistance, etc... so I pay for these guys (FD) to be "on-call" for me. When they show up to help me, I've already paid the insurance and there's no cost to me. But then someone from out of town has an emergency and needs help. Sure use them, but now you've taken the "on-call" I and my fellow residents paid for ...
so for examples sake, lets say it takes say 10 mins to drive out to you, 10 mins to drive back to the station ... plus they spend say 30 minutes on site directing traffic / cleaning the site (washing oil off the road, etc) and they spend another 10 mins doing paperwork after the fact... now you've just used up 1 hour of work per truck. So I can see where they billed the time to you. Now lets just say they have 4 guys per truck... so you've just used 4 guys x 2 trucks = 8 guys for 1 hour. You've now used 8 man hours of work. If your bill is $900 - HST = $796 ... So they charged you at the rate of approximately $100 / hour for equipment / labor "rental" of the guys I pay for ...
If I had an accident outside of Peel and a truck showed up, well I have no problems that he did show up and help out or not. He was there as an "insurance" that I was not dead and alive even if he did nothing. I would pay the bill or claim the accident and have my insurance pay for it.
The question then is a deer strike considered an at fault accident ? That one I have no answer to (even if you have no collision coverage).
I pay my municipal taxes for Peel to have Fire standing by for me ... in case I have an emergency, my house is on fire, I need assistance, etc... so I pay for these guys (FD) to be "on-call" for me. When they show up to help me, I've already paid the insurance and there's no cost to me. But then someone from out of town has an emergency and needs help. Sure use them, but now you've taken the "on-call" I and my fellow residents paid for ...
so for examples sake, lets say it takes say 10 mins to drive out to you, 10 mins to drive back to the station ... plus they spend say 30 minutes on site directing traffic / cleaning the site (washing oil off the road, etc) and they spend another 10 mins doing paperwork after the fact... now you've just used up 1 hour of work per truck. So I can see where they billed the time to you. Now lets just say they have 4 guys per truck... so you've just used 4 guys x 2 trucks = 8 guys for 1 hour. You've now used 8 man hours of work. If your bill is $900 - HST = $796 ... So they charged you at the rate of approximately $100 / hour for equipment / labor "rental" of the guys I pay for ...
If I had an accident outside of Peel and a truck showed up, well I have no problems that he did show up and help out or not. He was there as an "insurance" that I was not dead and alive even if he did nothing. I would pay the bill or claim the accident and have my insurance pay for it.
The question then is a deer strike considered an at fault accident ? That one I have no answer to (even if you have no collision coverage).
suzuki2000
Well-known member
Chiller, glad you are ok with paying the bill, but lets take it a step further, as you noteyou "pay" to have them standing by for you.... so if an outsider requires assistance, you don't want to be afftected, becasue you should have priority of service
So one day you step outside of your bubble, and need some assistance, you need assistance in the next 10 minutes or your life is in jeoprady... you make the call and get the message press one if you are local..., you're not? sorry local people are being taken care of, please hold...
they dispatch someone to your care, but in transit, they receive a message, local person needs help, a higher priority, sorry your will need to wait....
I get your "I paid for it" mentality, but just don't agree with it. We all pay taxes (well at least most of us working stiffs) and it pays for services for the greater good. It is not always the fair model, but it is what this country is built on.
So one day you step outside of your bubble, and need some assistance, you need assistance in the next 10 minutes or your life is in jeoprady... you make the call and get the message press one if you are local..., you're not? sorry local people are being taken care of, please hold...
they dispatch someone to your care, but in transit, they receive a message, local person needs help, a higher priority, sorry your will need to wait....
I get your "I paid for it" mentality, but just don't agree with it. We all pay taxes (well at least most of us working stiffs) and it pays for services for the greater good. It is not always the fair model, but it is what this country is built on.
LMFAO! Some of you are wearing tin foil hats on this subject.
Carry on regardless..
suzuki2000
Well-known member
no tinfoil hat, just playing devils advocate.... somebody's got to pay, and you will be told time and time again, base taxes don't cover it anymore, so we have user fees as new/additional taxes
right or worng, this is the new current reality we have.
everybody wants the Grand Daddy of services, but nobody want to foot the bill
Last edited:
Well my thoughts would be that you shouldn't have to pay for it as you pay for the service somewhere. While I may actually pay for the service in Essa, if I crash in Markham I get help. Someone from another municipality is likely to crash or need help of some sort in Essa. There are a lot of reciprocal agreements that don't have actual agreements, with specific municipalities or companies, as it's assumed that it will eventually balance out.
The municipalities with a smaller FD who are likely to get less calls and have smaller budgets to cover the "out of towners", also have less residents to need help in other municipalities. The larger urban areas who are likely to provide service to a larger number of people from out of town (ie Toronto FD) also has more residents who are likely to be travelling to their cottage in Huntsville and need the service of a FD along the 400.
Someone is bound to say this an unrealistic way to look at it, but there is no sure way to collect this data from from the all the provinces service providers that I know of.
The municipalities with a smaller FD who are likely to get less calls and have smaller budgets to cover the "out of towners", also have less residents to need help in other municipalities. The larger urban areas who are likely to provide service to a larger number of people from out of town (ie Toronto FD) also has more residents who are likely to be travelling to their cottage in Huntsville and need the service of a FD along the 400.
Someone is bound to say this an unrealistic way to look at it, but there is no sure way to collect this data from from the all the provinces service providers that I know of.
Johnny_M
Well-known member
Exactly. Everybody pays for it somewhere, so why are they double billing for it?
I never said anything about prioritizing patients or people in need... only that I pay for that service in my 'home' area and you pay for it in yours... if I visit you then I have no problems paying for it if I need it... if you visit me and you need help, by all means use my services but realize that my guys will you the same way your guys will bill me...
