Originally Posted By: MoBOB
Any firefighters please feel free to chime in:

If I recall correctly, putting out a fire in a house only prevents it from burning to the ground, right? The damage is still done. The house may be "totaled" as it were depending on the response time and distance.. Another concern for the fire fighter is to keep the fire from spreading to adjacent/nearby structures. Is that a correct assumption? If so, does that person get protection if they did not pay the fee?

Man, does this thing get twisted quickly or what?

Final note: Is there a jurisdictional question on this issue with the guy?


I'm not a professional firefighter, but do have firefighting experience and training from the military, work in the fire alarm business, and am NICET certified in Fire Protection (Fire Alarms Level III).

A lot of damage is indeed done by the water used to fight the fire, no doubt. And a lot of damage will have usually been done before the fire is out. Some structures are able to be saved, but not all and this would depend on response time, construction, and a lot of other conditions.

But preventing the spread of the fire to other areas of the same structure or even to other structures is key. I've had this same discussion with people in the sprinkler business.