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A water levy?? What the hell are they thinking? Give the people a break. The citizenry pay enough in taxes to support the department and the town, why should they have to pay for water, something that should be naturally free and easy to get?
I work with a department here in Oklahoma that works the same way almost. They have their own little association for their fire protection district. They charge $25 per call if you're a member and $250/hr per truck that they are out. The average barn fire takes what, 8-12 hours depending on the size of the barn involved and the contents? We're looking at over $13,000 in charges just for that one barn.
In my opinion, I think it discourages people that aren't pressured into joining the "association" from calling the fire department. I'd rather die or let it burn. A funeral is cheaper and insurance could cover the structure. I think it's a dirty business they run. EMS billing I could understand, but firefighting? Imagine getting losing everything you own and then getting an invoice from the fire department for over $13,000! I'd be sure to vote against the levy when one comes around. That'll give them the message that they need to go somewhere else with that.
They don't even follow OSHA or NFPA guidelines... of course they have SCBA and PPE, but they use it incorrectly or not at all and most of them don't even have the qualifications to be around fire. I feel like I need a tetanus shot whenever I go up there, which I do rarely. Nothing is clean or maintained properly but I let them do thier own thing since they don't want my opinion because I'm a "big city boy and big city boys don't know nothin' about country fires." Famous last words...
I work with a department here in Oklahoma that works the same way almost. They have their own little association for their fire protection district. They charge $25 per call if you're a member and $250/hr per truck that they are out. The average barn fire takes what, 8-12 hours depending on the size of the barn involved and the contents? We're looking at over $13,000 in charges just for that one barn.
In my opinion, I think it discourages people that aren't pressured into joining the "association" from calling the fire department. I'd rather die or let it burn. A funeral is cheaper and insurance could cover the structure. I think it's a dirty business they run. EMS billing I could understand, but firefighting? Imagine getting losing everything you own and then getting an invoice from the fire department for over $13,000! I'd be sure to vote against the levy when one comes around. That'll give them the message that they need to go somewhere else with that.
They don't even follow OSHA or NFPA guidelines... of course they have SCBA and PPE, but they use it incorrectly or not at all and most of them don't even have the qualifications to be around fire. I feel like I need a tetanus shot whenever I go up there, which I do rarely. Nothing is clean or maintained properly but I let them do thier own thing since they don't want my opinion because I'm a "big city boy and big city boys don't know nothin' about country fires." Famous last words...
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