Local Man Billed for Firetruck He Didn't Use

[MMiz]

Local Man Billed for Firetruck He Didn't Use

A Foothills man says he was billed $525 to have a Rural Metro fire truck park in front of his home. David Clifton is a World War Two and Korean War veteran who lives on a fixed income. He just reluctantly paid the bill for a 911 call he made last year to help his wife.

"She wanted me to call the ambulance and I did," says Clifton. The 85-year-old veteran was home with his wife, Priscilla, when she began having trouble breathing.

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[MMiz]

I've never heard of this before. Is it common for Fire Departments to also charge for their response?

 

[Aidey]

Is it a private FD?

 

[MMiz]

Is it a private FD?

I believe that Rural/Metro also operates as a private FD for some jurisdictions. I know a few years ago we discussed a story where they refused to put out a fire due to lack of payment.

 

[reaper]

RM admitted that the FF's did nothing on scene. Why should he have to pay for them? If it is a private held FD, then they need to stop sending them to medical calls for no reason. If the ambulance arrived first, they could have canceled the FD. Ten minutes was plenty of time to cancel them en route.

 

[Epi-do]

Wow! That's just wrong.

 

[karaya]

It's more common than you think! Here is a report to the Santa Rosa Fire Department that supports charging for fire department responses to medical calls. Look at the end of the report for a listing of other California fire departments that charge in addition to ambulance charges for the fire department providing medical care.

http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/doclib/agendas_packets_minutes/Documents/20090310_CC_Item2.2.pdf

 

[JPINFV]

...and people still don't realize how much of a scam EMS based fire suppression is.