WWYD? Arizona home burns to the ground and homeowner billed

[Opti]

www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/23888502/2013/11/05/man-gets-20k-bill-from-rural-metro


A man's house burned to the ground, but that wasn't his only shock -- because two weeks later, he received a bill for almost $20,000 from the private fire department that tried to fight it.

One state lawmaker says fire coverage in rural areas of Arizona is a mess and he says there needs to be oversight.

My system is seizing up trying to access the Fox URL so perhaps someone else
can cut and paste in more of the story. The summary is the guy got a bill for almost
$20K two weeks after the fire. They pay some sort of fire fee but it turns out it
has something to do with volunteer fire fighters and not actually any protection
for them personally. Their homeowner's insurance policy won't cover the cost and
its unclear how the private company even knew to come to the home as the
homeowners were actually gone when the fire started. And apparently the private
company does not allow you to opt out of their services so hence the surprise mess.

Oh, and I think the company may have recently gone bankrupt and just
recently sent the nearby homeowners bills to opt into montly or yearly
payments for fire protection even though they are 20 miles away and do not
guarantee response times.

WWYD?

[Tennesseer]

I don't know. It is a living in a very rural area mess.

[thyme4change]

I'd move out of surprise. Actually, I would never live there in the first place.

[resolution]

The article says they live in an unincorporated area near surprise. If you are in an unincorporated area you should be aware that you don't receive city fire services. Those pockets of unincorporated land have been avoiding taxes for decades and then using the city services. I think it is fair for them to pay.

I live in a similar unincorporated area and I pay an annual fire subscription fee to the local fire company. If we don't pay the subscription and they respond to a fire at our house, we will be charged $500 per hour per truck, which I think is fair. Less than 20% of the homes in our area pay the subscription, the rest are just taking their chances and hoping that they won't have a fire.

[Artemis Windsong]

I would check the legitimacy of the bill with the Attorney General's office.

My reason.  A scam artist was trying to bill people who had fire or emergency calls when the cost had already been covered by the city taxes.

For a primary residence, I will not live in an area that is not in a city with city services.

[EVT1]

Is it a lot higher?  And I would wonder if there is really a reason it would be.....  Other than the meth labs are these homes any more likely to burn down than those with fire protection in the city area?  Sure they show up with a hose- but usually (at least it seems to me) the loss has happened by the time they get it under control- they aren't really there to save the home but to contain the damage and save lives.  I'd tell Rural Metro to suck it for 20K- take me to court. 

[chiver78]

quite honestly, this is why I'm okay with the taxes I pay for services like having the Fire Dept show up to extinguish something uncontrollable at my house. it's kind of like health/life insurance. you pay to save your dependents/beneficiaries, hoping that you'll never need it.

I have never lived somewhere with a volunteer FD, so maybe that is my blind spot......but I can't imagine leaving something like the fire dept up to volunteers.