Home burns then fire department charges residents nearly $20,000

[drmeow]

Didn't see this posted yet:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/home-burns-then-fire-department-charges-residents-nearly--20-000-204449952.html?vp=1

Tell me again how you said you preferring to live in an unincorporated area cause the taxes were lower!

From the article:

Justin Purcell and his family were out of their home in Surprise, Arizona when flames engulfed it in August. As reported by KSAZ Fox 10, by the time Justin arrived home with his family the firefighters were losing the battle to save the home. The cause of the fire was unknown. Justin told the station, "It's definitely a shocker when you come back and your house is gone." But Justin was in for another shock when two weeks later he received a bill from Rural Metro Fire Department, a private department, charging him $19,825 for their services in his unincorporated area that has no fire coverage. "Definitely was a surprise. It was a shocker when we got that," said Justin.

snip

When KSAZ asked to see documentation about what the mutual aid agreement entailed, they were told by Colin, “We do have what I call a gentleman's agreement" and there was nothing in writing.

snip

Before the incident area residents thought they had fire coverage because they were paying a “fire district assistance tax.” But it turns out that that is a countywide tax that funds volunteer fire districts.

Arizona State Senator Chester Crandell admitted that fire coverage in Arizona’s rural areas is a mess, “Having county islands that have no service in, in uh, fireboards that are just packing up and leaving, going bankrupt… It's certainly something that needs to be addressed.” But until that time, residents of this unincorporated area have few options: Buy a yearly $500 subscription from Rural Metro for fire coverage, take the gamble of getting a bill if they have a house fire, or form their own fire district which could take months.

[gollygee]

1. Ah, privatization

And there are people, many of them, many in our state and federal government, who think just about everything should be privatized. Who cares what it does to people if there's a potential profit out there somewhere.

[dchill]

3. Privatization is the dirtiest,

most obscene word I know.

[Blue_Tires]

2. Yeah, that's just a shakedown

The fire department charging him wasn't even the first to arrive? LOL

[Fumesucker]

4. Sounds remarkably like getting seriously ill

[KurtNYC]

5. if he doesn't pay they can put a lein on the pile of ashes

[SDjack]

6. Neat solution to this problem: Reduce Taxes and Services. nt

[FSogol]

7. Welcome to Rand Paul's America!

And Ted Cruz's, and Mike Huckabee's, and Paul Ryan's, and .....