belfert

There are a number of rural areas in northern Minnesota that have these membership funded fire departments.

There was a case recently where a house burned because the owner didn't pay the dues. I think they did respond to make sure there wasn't a life threatening issue. I believe the county is thinking about a tax supported department after this incident.

If they go out and fight every fire, nobody would pay the dues. I wonder what happens if I get in an car accident in their area? I don't live there so I can't have paid dues in advance.

Brian Elfert

Lrdchaos

Actually you do....Those city taxes you pay, they pay for your protection. That's why you don't get billed if you live in the city. If you live in the county the fire department does not receive any tax money. On the other hand the fire department can bill the homeowners insurance and get the money back on a situation like that. It's just ridiculous to sit there and watch something burn, over a few hundred dollars.

P.J

You beat me to it, I was going to post this same incident.

What a joke, I hear these guys were shutting off each others air and all.

Geico266

If watching a kid get scared to death is funny, then watchin a guy's garage burn down (when you are suppose to put out fires) must be a riot!? It don't get any better!





I'm just pulling your leg. (leave the thong out of this! )

Geico266

This does not surprise me at all. I was a V. fireman for 4 years, after being a fireman / damage controlman in the Navy for 4 years. It was nothing but a beer drinking gang of thugs trying to rip the department off through their tax level. The fire cheif was convicted of using a department CC for buying camping gear for his family. Stole about $20,000 that they knew of. Another guy stole pickle card money used for fund raising. We were suppose to get gas money as firemen, but they stole that too. It was a mess.

I finally quit after getting yelled at because on a fire call I put a vehicle fire with my personal fire extingusher (in full bunker gear) and saved the vehicle. They wanted me to wait for back up so they could use the hose.

Silly me, I thought firemen were suppose to put out fires.

SoTexRattler

WAAAAY back in time when I was young and foolish, I was a VFD member and we looked forwards to getting an out-of-city-limits call because the county would reimburse the city's VFD a whopping $100 per call.. Hey, it was better than in-city calls where the dept got paid something like $7 per call..

K.

chaikwa

This is actually quite a common practice, mostly in rural areas, called a 'subscription' based service. Most often, there is NO tax based financial support for the fire department, thus the membership/subscription fee. I don't know if that was the case for the fire department/town mentioned in the article or not, but I'd be willing to bet it was.

The last paragraph of the article states, "Rural Monett members have not been asked to choose between memberships and tax support, though they came out strongly against a proposed Aurora Rural Bi-County Fire Protection District, which was voted down in 2001." This leads me to believe they voted against a tax base funded fire department, choosing instead to remain with the subscription/membership type of arrangement.

A year or so ago, we did some training for a fire department that went back to the subscription arrangement after being tax base funded for 15 years. The town voters had kept cutting the FD budget until it got to the point that there was no money left for gas for the trucks, let alone any hope of needed safety gear or supplies. At least now with the subscription service, they have some safe equipment and gear to work with. They won't let ANYONE go without treatment for an injury, or refuse to attempt rescue from a burning building, but they won't attempt to extinguish a fire in someone's house who has refused to pay their subscription fee either if no one's life is in danger.

I don't know if I agree with the subscription policies or not, but the money has to come from somewhere or there won't BE a fire department. And if everyone didn't pay their fee with the idea that they'll pay if they NEED the FD, there wouldn't be any monies either. I guess it's like anything else, if you want a service, you have to pay for it or do without it.

As far as recovering the costs from a homeowners' insurance policy; the most any insurance company will pay for firefighting operations is $500, regardless of costs incurred by the FD.

Just my take on the whole thing.

chaikwa.

apache

Dosent surprise me. Must be managed by FIMA. What goes around comes around.

SoTexRattler

We did have someone in the dept with access, that compensated himself for his fuel use alright.. This person would siphon fuel from the pumper trucks!!! We never could catch who it was.. Probably just as well, as I'm sure if we did, he might have incurred some lasting physical impairments that might have disqualified him from working just about anywhere...
I guess we had a pretty tame, proficient VFD considering the old chief just loved to work on old surplus junk ALL the time..
Long after I wasn't a VFD member, I put out a sizable gasoline fire in my neighbor's carport storage room with my ancient BC 30pounder .. The old chief heard about it and came by and insisted on picking it up from me. He had it hydro'ed and refilled at city expense... He said, "You saved the city lots of $$ by using this" .

K.

Willy91

Our fire dept. up here is funded by a tax district. Everybody pays the tax whether they live in town or in the country this has helped out alot. Before the tax district we had to frie chicken every other weekend just to pay for fuel and insurance

Mopardan

Ok, here we go. I'm a member of a rural VFD. My better half is also Tres. of the dept. We get Act 833 money from the state every quarter. Our district voted years ago to add 1/10th of 1% on to their property taxes for fire TAXES. Don't know how fair it is cause some pay more, some pay less. WE have never stood by and let a house or property burn. Actually we put out the fire and ask questions later. We are automatic mutial aid for the city in this county, and automatic mutial aid for 4 other districts for tanker shuttle. We receive no personal compensention at all for our services. Like has already been said> THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED

Shovelhead

Even the spelling-challenged.

Kinduva giant leap from fire fighters to illegal aliens, ain't it?

Smkn600CTD

Can you see trying to explain this to you homeowners insurance adjuster?

"Did you call the FD?"...."yes I did.........they just stood there and watched my house burn to the ground"

Just the mental picture is amazing.....be driving down the street, seeing this place ablaze, with the FD standing there.

Still blows my mind, that they would let a persons whole lifes belongs go up in smoke, and not give a rats *** about it.

Geez........send the dude a bill or something in the mail. If he don't pay that, then go back and light his place on fire again.

.....only in America

Timberman

I'm a volunteer fire fighter in a rural area. Our dept is funded from county state and federal funds. The only service that gets billed is if you are transported in the ambulance, there's a 350 fee, goes to your insurance policy, I believe. Most people around here will do anything to help someone in need. I think the # of volunteer fire fighters per capita is higher on the delmarva peninsula than anywhere else on earth.

P.J

This I would believe. I have never had an interest myself, but I am very appreiciative of of our local guys and they are not short handed, that is for sure!

My son had a pretty wicked dirt bike accident in November of 2003. The firemen and ambulance were the first responders and really knew their stuff. The immediately decided to call for the State Police medivac after checking out his level of injury.

The chopper took 11 minutes to put the skids on the ground at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore 74 miles away from our side yard.
Awesome, pure and simple.

Completely profession and compassioniate service all around.

I think they should build in set fees into our property taxes SPECIFICALLY for VFD's, not from general fund to be pillaged by the lawmakers,straight to the firehouses.