[h=1]Meaford to recoup fire costs[/h][h=3][/h][h=4]By Don Crosby[/h][h=5]Posted 5 months ago[/h]
Meaford will try to recover some of the cost of fighting structure fires through a deal with a company that will bill insurance companies.
"There is under the home insurance a clause which allows for some of these costs that we incurred as we dispatched the fire department and the time spent fighting the fire. We can reclaim some if not all of those costs," Meaford chief executive officer Frank Miele told members of council earlier this week.
Coverage ranges from $500 to $25,000, depending on the policy.
Meaford will enter into an agreement with Fire Marque, which will act on behalf of the municipality. According to a report presented to council Monday, the company will keep 30% of the money from the insurance company.
Coun. James McIntosh argued that homeowners are already paying for the coverage, so why not make a claim?
Money obtained from insurance companies will be applied to fire prevention and public education programs, equipment purchases for the fire department and training for firefighters.
"That's why the money is to go to the fire department, so they can have better-trained staff, the public is educated on how to prevent fires and fire departments have better equipment. At the end of the day the insurance companies should pay out less because local fire departments are better equipped," said Chris Carrier, a spokesperson for Fire Marque.
Carrier assured councillors that property insurance rates won't go up as a result of the program.
"Insurance companies have been calculating premiums to include charges for fire department services even though they haven't had to pay out on the coverage," said Carrier, who noted that home fire insurance rates are not determined by the number of claims but how close a building is from a fire hydrant or fire station, if the building has a sprinkler system, what the building is made of, and whether there is an alarm system.
Carrier said the cost of home insurance premiums have risen over the years not because of the number of claims made but the increased value of the houses and their contents.
"Property insurance is a very profitable side of the insurance business. Even if you look at Slave Lake, Alberta, the losses there are not that big in the grand scheme of properties that are insured and pooled. It's really such a small amount of money in the big scheme of life," he said.
Slave Lake was hit by a forest fire earlier this year.
The process of recovering costs doesn't require the name of the homeowner, just the name of the insurance adjuster and the policy number.
"We're not interested in who the homeowner or property owner is, we're just interested in looking at the property insurance file. We determine what kind of coverage there is and how much is eligible expenses . . . to recoup to the municipal fire department," Carrier said.
Carrier said only two municipalities in Canada have been doing something similar to what he's proposing - Camrose, Alta., and Innisfil, south of Barrie. He said Innisfil it has been billing insurance companies a flat rate of $500 per fire.
"In all sincerity we believe that we can collect for them significantly more money," Carrier said.
Fire Marque Inc. is a privately owned Barrie-based company licensed in all provinces and territories.
"We don't have the expertise in house to follow up with insurance claims. That's what they do. They are prepared to follow up and they get an administrative percentage," said Miele.
