Fire department Bill

[moto22]

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Try and remember that the \Fire department works for the city and it is the city that is submitting you the bill to recoupe thier costs. Those costs would in turn be again paid by your insurance unless of course you dont have any but then it ends up that the person is responsible for thier choises in not getting insurance. Dont blame the guys who walk into your burning home trying to save as much of your stuff and your life as they can while risking thiers because the city wants compensation. Police write tickets to make money to cover thier costs. Ambulances charge between $50-$300 for a ride to the hospital depending on it is deemed life threatening or the person was jsut to lazy to drive them selves thier or simply go see thier doctor because of the flu. Fire departments provide a service and dont personally bill the public. The city bills for False alarms calls at buildings and for perishable products like absorbant materials at accidnets.

I'm a strong supporter of firefighters and emergency service people, well some Police, "not so much", but thats another issue. My issue is with this billing practice in which you clarified is charged by the City, in which in my opinion is a double dipping tax. That said it makes perfect sense for their to be a charge for false alarms , and non emergency calls.

 

[OpenGambit]

Try and remember that the \Fire department works for the city and it is the city that is submitting you the bill to recoupe thier costs. Those costs would in turn be again paid by your insurance unless of course you dont have any but then it ends up that the person is responsible for thier choises in not getting insurance. Dont blame the guys who walk into your burning home trying to save as much of your stuff and your life as they can while risking thiers because the city wants compensation. Police write tickets to make money to cover thier costs. Ambulances charge between $50-$300 for a ride to the hospital depending on it is deemed life threatening or the person was jsut to lazy to drive them selves thier or simply go see thier doctor because of the flu. Fire departments provide a service and dont personally bill the public. The city bills for False alarms calls at buildings and for perishable products like absorbant materials at accidnets.

I'm a strong supporter of firefighters and emergency service people, well some Police, "not so much", but thats another issue. My issue is with this billing practice in which you clarified is charged by the City, in which in my opinion is a double dipping tax. That said it makes perfect sense for their to be a charge for false alarms , and non emergency calls.

User fees is not double taxation. There are a million other examples of double taxation and this isn't one of them.

 

[moto22]

User fees is not double taxation. There are a million other examples of double taxation and this isn't one of them.

If your paying local municipal tax , provincial tax , all of which is money used for emergency services, then a user fee i would say thats triple taxation. That said, it might be necessary i concede for some cities, due to the high cost of the service , and especially policing in some cities like Toronto are out of control.

 

[OpenGambit]

If you paying local municipal tax , provincial tax , all of which is money used for emergency services, then a user fee i would say thats triple taxation. That said, it might be necessary i concede for some cities, due to the high cost of the service , and especially policing in some cities like Toronto are out of control.

if you said that, you would be wrong.

 

[moto22]

if you said that, you would be wrong.

Umm NO ! It's the facts, your choosing to ignore cause you don't agree which is your choice ..

 

[OpenGambit]

Umm NO ! It's the facts, your choosing to ignore cause you don't agree which is your choice ..

Rather, I am just talking to someone who doesn't know what double taxation means.

 

[psycho44]

Just curious what do firefighters do when they not responding to fire and accidents. And if a volunteer firefighter group showed up do they still bill you?

 

[31Smokinjoe]

Just curious what do firefighters do when they not responding to fire and accidents. And if a volunteer firefighter group showed up do they still bill you?

Equipment maintainance, training, fire prevention, inspections. . .

Our volunteer dept. charges for hwy accidents and multiple false alarms. It isnt cheap to run the trucks and every call out, costs.

If we didn't charge for these the money would have to come from the taxpayer through increased taxes.
It isn't like this is giving us a big windfall the amount charged usually barely covers the costs.

 

[AdRath]

Equipment maintainance, training, fire prevention, inspections. . .

Our volunteer dept. charges for hwy accidents and multiple false alarms. It isnt cheap to run the trucks and every call out, costs.

If we didn't charge for these the money would have to come from the taxpayer through increased taxes.
It isn't like this is giving us a big windfall the amount charged usually barely covers the costs.

So your saying that the fire dept only gets funding for salary and firehouse maintenance and none of the truck expenses are included? So if you didn't run the trucks you would just get by? I know the police budgets are an over inflated mess but never hear much about fire budgets.

I think where the public gets frustrated is that they see their tax bills that are supposed to fund these services and yet get the feeling of being double charged when they have to use it. It is easy to get the impression of being shaken down for cash when you are your most vulnerable which never sits well with people.

on an un-related note the police need to get their budgets down to size. Their budgets and pay go up while crime has steadily gone down. you can only milk it for so long before people will wake up.

 

[31Smokinjoe]

No what I am saying is we have a limited budget as a volunteer department and if the costs of running the trucks is too high then we have to cut back in other areas.

Also as a Volunteer dept not much goes to salaries. I get an honorarium that if I figured it out would work out to about 4-5 dollars an hour but I guess I'm just another greedy public servant

 

[Baggsy]

Just curious what do firefighters do when they not responding to fire and accidents. And if a volunteer firefighter group showed up do they still bill you?

Construction business for some of them. Some are pro athletes. Any type of job that can work around their schedule.

 

[jverlaan]

I work for a city department and we have to clean the station and equipment each day ( no city cleaning staff to do it for us like the desk jockeys who have to deal with paper cuts etc.). Then we have training to keep up on ( first aid , CPR , Extrication equipment , mask certifications , confined space rescue , and for our own benefit Self rescue ). when we are all done those daily duties ( if we have the time ) we can do some fitness training to stay in shape but all this takes place only if we are not running a call. I had a shift alst month that we went from one 4 hour fire , to a 6 hour fire , to a 3 hour fire and didnt get to eat or change clothes till 930pm from around 8am other than gatorade and granola bars that is.

 

[jverlaan]

most smaller cities have a mix of full time and volunteer. the volunteers are on call and respond to a pager so are only paid when the respond to the staion from either home or if their work allows from work. Verry rural area may only have volunteers and they respond the same to a pager or a community siren.

I assume the city would bill your insurance to recover expenses as would a full time department.

 

[jverlaan]

Construction business for some of them. Some are pro athletes. Any type of job that can work around their schedule.

I think the question was what do they do when they are at work. what anyone does when they are off work is their own buisness. I have lots of people I know who have always had 2 and 3 jobs going to pay the bills. before I got on the job I had 1 full time and 2 part time jobs to keep up with my expenses.

You seemed to have been implying that there was something wrong with working extra jobs to support your family or life style. I personaly dont agree and am appalled at the number of people who wont even get one job and rely on the people working 2 and 3 to put a roof over their head and food in their stomachs with their tax dollars.

 

[nobbie48]

I had a chat with a fire dispatcher and the impression I got was that the decision lays with the chief. If he / she thinks a fee is in order it gets charged. I accidently triggered an alarm in a London office building and since everyone agreed that what I was doing should never have triggered a smoke detector no call out fees were charged.
In some cases where someone is being a jerk with nuisance calls they may instead turn the calls over to the cops for charges under 911 misuse.

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