Increase in Private Fire Protection (Article)

[mikeinet 37]

Fascinating Article. It's too long to post -- but here's the URL. Discusses what insurance companies are doing and private fire depts and the concept and its effects.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/As_public_fi...ollar_1210.html

[Goose 188]

Old news. This was being reported back during the summer and has been going on long before the summer. Not quite sure what this has to do with Bush, as it's not the federal governments responsibility to fund the operating costs of every fire department in the country. Likewise, political contributions like this occur on both sides of the isle all the time.

[NJMedic 96]

Its the old adage..."You get what you pay for".

This might sound very simple but the people of San Diego must be content with the level of fire protection because no one seems to care unless the latest wildfire roars up/down the hill. Here in NJ (and I imagine in NY also) people pay hugh tax bills and have no clue how good or how bad their emergency services providers are or if they will even show up. Ask the normal citizen if they would be willing to pony up an extra $100 a year in taxes to provide efficent and effective emergency services (police/fire/EMS) and they will say "No!" Ask that same guy when he is laid out having the big one and his town's EMS can't get out due to a lack of personnel or the same guy whose faced with a simple room and contents fire sees 2 guys show up on the first due engine and his house burns down because they couldn't mount an agressive interior attack if he now wants to fork over some cash he could'nt whip out his wallet fast enough.

Remember that old Aamco commercial..."You can pay me now or you can pay me later"

And I don't think Bush has anything to do with it. Build homes in the urban/wildland interface and prohibit controlled burns has alot to do with the wildland fire problem.

[27east 19]

This has nothing at all to do with Bush and the Federal Government. This is a local, home-rule issue. But when in doubt, let's blame Bush!

[trauma74 111]

Wasnt there a private FD somewhere in Westchester County years ago?

[RWC130 594]

Ask the normal citizen if they would be willing to pony up an extra $100 a year in taxes to provide efficent and effective emergency services (police/fire/EMS) and they will say "No!" Ask that same guy when he is laid out having the big one and his town's EMS can't get out due to a lack of personnel or the same guy whose faced with a simple room and contents fire sees 2 guys show up on the first due engine and his house burns down because they couldn't mount an agressive interior attack if he now wants to fork over some cash he could'nt whip out his wallet fast enough.

well said... sooo true!

[TRUCK6018 50]

Wasnt there a private FD somewhere in Westchester County years ago?

You're thinking of Rural Metro who was contracted to cover The Village of Rye Brook. They had either 2 or 4 (I forget) firefighters covering the station with a group of paid on call firefighters when needed. They didn't last very long there. It took one multi million dollar mansion to burn before things changed.

Rural Metro FD has some presence in upstate NY (mostly EMS services) and they are big down south (Arizona area) for fire and ems.

[CPAGE 2]

Rural Metro has an EMS base/office out on Staten Island they run in all 5 Boro's and many parts of North Jersey. I also think they have or had the EMS contract for te city of Garfield NJ in Bergen co.