Reply #12: There's something you may not be considering here [View All]

[jmowreader]

And that is, if a trailer catches fire it is VERY hard to put it out compared to a mansion. In a fire situation a trailer is essentially a wind tunnel. Look how they're designed. They got a little better after 1976, when national standards were implemented (for instance, they must have drywall now--I've lived in trailers that only had paneling on the walls, and those were disasters waiting to happen. Also, quite a few of them use propane appliances--and propane fires cannot be extinguished. Best estimate is it takes 10 minutes for a trailer to burn down to the frame rails.

Mansions use better materials, they're designed so fire can't propagate as easily...when one of those catches fire, if the fire department gets there before the place flashes over (if flashover--where the air gets so hot everything in the room ignites at once--happens, you're screwed even if the house is brick) they can save it.

So...if the fee-for-service people ever get out of the flat-fee model, God help us, people in trailers will have to pay a LOT more than people in mansions, for the simple fact that it's easier to put out a fire in a mansion.