Fire Chief watches house burn over $75 tax

[Byte Stryke]

Good thing nobody came running out of the trailer on fire- they probably would have to turn around for that.

Imminent danger to life.
By Law ANYONE must make an attempt at that point. This is where you folks are missing the point

Not everything should be profit driven. Some things, such as fire protection, should be a public service.

If nothing else, they could have put out the fire then billed him for actual costs of putting it out.

The whole point of this is that there is no profit, its a rural VFD controlled by the government and funded by YOU, the homeowner. It is NOT a TAX... its a FEE, you can OPT IN or OPT OUT by not paying the FEE. AGAIN not a Government TAX.
So lets say you DON'T pay the FEE and call the VFD and they come out and save it anyways.

"Did you hear about the fire at the Johnson's? they didn't pay and the fire department came out and put their fire out. I Don't know why we pay if they don't have to."

Now more people aren't paying.
And as stated before, a lien means shit. To this day I still have an outstanding lien on a house I worked on in 1994 to the tune of just over $7K.(Tile Remodel)
That and $10 will get me some McDonald's.

[Byte Stryke]

Lets imagine that a new county sprang up in the Middle of nowhere.

Now we all live in this new county and we have an election and we say NO TAXES!
EVAR!

great, But now what about emergency services?
we have no police,No Fire and no Ambulance services because we cant pay them!
Its OK, we will handle it!

Well you know, I work late at night and I Don't like my wife and son home alone. But I hear oneguy67 is a certified law enforcement official. Him and I work out a deal where if my wife sees a prowler or whatnot she can call him and he will come to investigate matters.
But his time and energies aren't free.
We agree that I have to pay him 50 "clams" a year for this service.

Now if my Neighbor, "TheInternet", who DOESNT pay calls Oneguy67 and says someone stole his polishing compound and Oneguy67 goes rushing out there and investigates it. Hows that make me feel?


I want my friggin money back.
You gave them the services for free you can give it to everyone for free!
Can't afford it? you could afford to give it to them on MY Dime. Its not like it was life or Death!





BTW, my old station-house is having a fundraiser
Support your and other VFDs or FPDs

Who here can tell me why its a .com and not a .gov?

[Krasni]

Also, $10 says if this was an illegal's house it would have been put out. Take that how you will, I'm not even sure how I mean it.

The home owner should have paid. But the volunteer fire department has zero integrity on this issue. So much for a man "doing the right thing even if no one is looking."

Do VFD's give out merit badges for being assholes?

Sort of surprised PETA hasn't sued for letting the pets burn alive.

[Byte Stryke]

It's all a matter of Who is paying the Bills.
VFD?FPDs are NON-PROFIT NON Government owned departments CONTROLLED by the government (See Bureaucracy)

So these shitbags didn't want to pay a Tax to fund a fire department (Voted on in an election)so a FPD/VFD (See above) was set up on a subscription system, because well, Some people wanted a FD and were willing to contribute to this benefit of society.
Then the same shitbags, cry because the fire department they didn't want to pay the Taxes or FEE for, didn't rush over to put out their burning shit... because they didnt want to Pay Taxes or Fees...for services they want for free


THEN, you "Anti-socialists" vilify the FD for holding their ground and following the law.


I give up.

[theGinsue]

I'm all with GreenScout & Trouble on this, but I also think this guy should have paid - if his home was near enough for FD resources to make a difference; which appears to be the case.

My parents live out in the middle of nowhere in Missouri. The nearest town (where their mail comes through) has a Fire Department (Volunteer I believe).

I recall someone with the FD coming to talk with my folks when we first moved into the home back in '79. This guy was soliciting for a Fire Protection fee just like the one in this situation.

I recall my dad asking this guy what the chances were of them getting to our house in time to save the home in case a fire broke out. The guy honestly answered that there was really no chance of them getting there in time to save the home if a fire broke out in the home.

BUT!.... He also pointed out that if a fire broke out at a neighbors home and spread to our property, they should be able to make it to our property in time to save our home.

My dad paid the fee.

[Graves]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39535911...ife/?GT1=43001

What a piece of shit... Put it out, send him a bill, but don't stand there and watch his house, possessions, dogs, cats all burn to ashes. What next, cops stand there and watch theives rob a house because they hadn't paid their state taxes yet? Absolutely disgusting. You wear a badge, you take an oath, you are there to serve the public, not pick and choose based on who paid what tax.

Hmm, reminds me of a certain group of folks who just take, take, and take without paying for jack or s**t; sort of creates a problem for those of us who do in fact contribute doesn't it? What if the whole county has the same "f*** your fee!" attitude? I'll bet their fee would be much higher. I'll bet he wont go thinking he's so damn special now when he does one of two things that he should have done before: pays the fee or moves somewhere else.

[Troublco]

I think the guy should have paid too. I think a lot of people ought to be paying taxes, who aren't. But I also think that Byte wants a perfect world, and it ain't happening. Hell, if we had a perfect world we wouldn't have illegals soaking up billions of dollars in free (to them) medical care. We wouldn't have people using welfare as a lifestyle. We wouldn't have all the libs wanting other people to go in harm's way so they don't have to. And so on. Do I want things to be better? Hell, yes. I pay my taxes, and serve (till they finish tossing me out) my country, and want better for my kids than I had, and all the usual stuff. But if every single person was held to an absolute, black and white, yes and no, on or off standard then we'd all be in jail or on probation, even all of the cops and judges. Byte wants things done right, no matter what, all the time, and that's great. I admire that, but let me know when that starts working for you, and how you got it to work that way.

If we're going to let the house burn if one guy didn't pay, we need to start denying police and medical response if someone doesn't pay taxes. How about we start keeping records of who does and doesn't pay taxes, so we know who to tell that we can't send the cops to their place when some gangbangers break in to steal their property and rape/kill them and their families? Then we can start prioritizing responses based on how much tax is paid; those who pay more can get a faster response or get priority if more than one call is received at the same time. "Yes, sir, we can come help you. But according to our records, your elderly mother doesn't pay tax anymore, so we can't help her." How does that work? What happens if the bureaucracy that will have to exist to track all this goofs and tells the Fire Dept. that someone didn't pay when in fact they did, and then afterward they find out they goofed? "Gee, we're sorry we let your house burn down. We had a glitch in our records. Next time, we'll make sure we respond promptly."

I understand the frustration about those who sponge off the system. I don't like it either. Maybe what was done in this instance is the answer, but I see it fraught with problems.

[SA Friday]

Hmm, reminds me of a certain group of folks who just take, take, and take without paying for jack or s**t; sort of creates a problem for those of us who do in fact contribute doesn't it? What if the whole county has the same "f*** your fee!" attitude? I'll bet their fee would be much higher. I'll bet he wont go thinking he's so damn special now when he does one of two things that he should have done before: pays the fee or moves somewhere else.

Sounds like a great arguement for rolling the fee into everyone's property taxes. Then everyone pays or just moves somewhere else...

[Graves]

Sounds like a great arguement for rolling the fee into everyone's property taxes. Then everyone pays or just moves somewhere else...

I personally don't agree with the "fee" they have set up but they'd probably never say anything if that was the case. Heck, for all we know they might be the town scumbags and the chief said "fork em". Sets a good example IMO.

[BigMat]

I used to work with a fire dept. that worked like this

I worked on an ambulance and worked out of a ton of fire houses, city, county, district, volunteer, and private (fee based)

This article isn't fully accurate as to how this really works, in most cases when there is a private fire dep't they will put out a fire on a building in their area, even for a non-subscriber, BUT, the owner of the property then has to foot the bill for all of it, which can be a huge amount of money, frequently more than the structure itself, while the subscriber doesn't have to pay for anything more than their subscription.

As cruel as it sounds, every home and business was given the option, and they didn't need to pay a high tax for fire services in the government covered areas, and the subscription fee was usually much less.

If you are going to cheap out on a $75 fee for fire services, don't get pissed when you have a fire, if he lived in a gov't controlled district, he could get locked up for not paying his taxes


As a person familiar with all of the options for fire depts, I prefer the private option. They tend to be the cheapest for the people and provide great service, while avoiding the bloated spending of most public entities. Sorry to my old friends in the public FDs, they got paid a ton and had really really nice kit, but it was mostly a waste. Amazing, the .gov wastes, I know!