A sad situation indeed. Not the ending we were all hoping for. Our only consolation is the lessons learned and discussion generated by this event. Hopefully the lessons learned will not soon be forgotten.



I believe this depends on if it is a paid or volunteer fire department. Here the city fire department is paid (not volunteer) and taxpayer funded. In the surrounding area the fire departments are volunteer and funded by fire dues, fundraisers and other donations. All are able to take advantage of any grant money available. The volunteer fire departments will charge a fee for responding to a fire if you don't pay your annual fire dues. I am not sure if the city fire department also charges a fee. Many homeowners insurance companies in the state also have a coverage available to cover the cost of the fire department's charge. Our ambulance services also charge but most health insurance will cover that. Our ambulance services are a mixed bag, some run by individuals for profit, some run by a local non-profit hospital, and the ones run by the city fire department that are taxpayer funded. All of them bill insurance for services provided. Is it the same elsewhere? Perhaps the future of S & R services would be a similar charge paid by insurance via an optional (or mandatory) endorsement to insurance. That is in the event it is not all volunteer or able to be written off as training.