re: #53 Charles

I’d disagree that it was inevitable. The policy in this locality had gone on for 20 years and this was the first instance. Someone would have to go through the news reports from around the country to find other examples - even though fee-based subscriptions to fire protection is something that many unincorporated areas around the country deal with.

The problem here is that the fire department opted not to act when it was present at the scene of an active fire when it should have.

It was inevitable that the incident would occur because of a decision by the fire chief not to fight the fire when the fee wasn’t paid, even though the decision could have resulted in an out-of-control fire that would have been beyond the means of the firefighters on scene to contain, causing damage to far more properties, including those that had paid the fee.

Moreover, fire departments around the country routinely fight fires on properties that have been abandoned and do not pay their taxes. It’s because it is not only the morally and ethically prudent thing to do, but it’s a protection to those properties that have paid their taxes.

The difference in fighting those kinds of fires is that the fire departments wont try to fight the fires from the interiors to save as much of the property involved in the fire itself but rather engage in containment to prevent its spread to adjacent properties.