Being charged for the fire brigade to come out?!

Bally8

Apologies my information must be wrong so. As far as I was aware there is no charge in my region.

CrazyRabbit

Millicent wrote: »

I love that you said "chimley". And yeah, it's ridiculous. Think the Joe Duffy Brigade were on this topic before but nothing seems to have come of it.

dan1895 wrote: »

How much do they charge for a call out?

5000 brain cells.

Bally8

This thread is a total jinks. I had to call an ambulance earlier for my neighbour who fell off a roof. We will see if he gets charged:)

murf313

Bally8 wrote: »

Apologies my information must be wrong so. As far as I was aware there is no charge in my region.

Im a paramedic in the HSE abulance service - there is NO charge for an ambulance no matter what the circumstances.

@pcphoto - i would imagine the ambulance that stopped and took you to an a&e was a private ambulance. They would charge there own grannies if the could. Plus they are only for doing transfers so probably should have phoned for an emergency ambulance to treat you especially as they already had a patient on board.

PhatPiggins

Wicklowrider wrote: »

Outside of cities and with exception of one or two larger towns in Ireland, the fire service are retained part time. If they are "sitting on their holes" as your eloquent vocabulary put sit, then they aren't being paid. Even Bray hasn't a full time service.

I used to be on a retained service. One day we were called and the duty driver didn't show up. I drove and when we got there it was the duty driver's car on fire! And yes - he did get a bill.....

Maybe you could clarify this if you would be so kind: Who is liable for the charge, the caller or the recipient of the fire brigades service.

BBDBB

I can see the pyros now

Mwhahahaha People are filthy and Fire is the cleanser

how much?

fock dat!

Wicklowrider

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Maybe you could clarify this if you would be so kind: Who is liable for the charge, the caller or the recipient of the fire brigades service.

Honestly cannot clarify as its the council who charge, fire service don't even handle the paperwork regarding the billing.

looksee

Paying for a fire brigade callout is to stop needless calls. It shouldn't be necessary to call out for a chimney fire.

First if you keep the chimney clean it will not go on fire (burning those soot removers does not count, they are a liability). You would often hear of people firing the chimney to 'clean' it, then having to call out the brigade. It is now cheaper to hire a sweep.

If you do have a chimney go on fire, if you can put a board across the entire fireplace with NO GAPS, the fire will go out (done that), or if you can throw sand or soil onto it that can also put it out. Yes, I know, it might be worth having a bucket of sand though. If it doesn't go out quickly then call the brigade and put up with the cost. The last thing you want is a cracked flue.

January

It's the recipient of the service who receives the bill, which is then usually covered by home/car insurance...

So, say if your neighbours house went up while they were out, they will get the bill.

If you see a robbed car up in flames, the owner will get the bill. Not the person who makes the call, if the call is BOGUS, then the person who made the call will be charged, if they can trace it.

gbee

irishdude11 wrote: »

Ridiculous that you get charged for a fire brigade. The lazy twats are sitting on their holes all day getting paid to do nothing, and then when they are actually needed there is a surcharge. Itd be the same as if the guards started charging to people to call out when they are needed. Or the postman charging you for bringing letters.

I'm afraid I can't accept as it is in error in a number of facts.

Fact No1 is the majority of the Fire Service is manned by volunteers who leave their job, their shopping their TV watching and race to the scene of the incident to meet up with the appliances.

Fulltime paid employees are in the larger urban centres and they are kept very busy indeed, the majority of the work done by the fire service is actually extricating people from vehicle collisions.

As a side note, the cost it the reason there is so much road safety campaigns as the full cost of the various services to attend a multi car pile up runs into the hundred of thousands and many over one million euro per incident annually.

Lord Mount Charles only praised the fire service as he handed over one million euro them for their attendance at his castle home.

Should we be paying these charges, IMO NO! But I do take exception to the quoted post.

The Majority of those men that rescue you or yours on land or at sea [SAR Helis exempted] are volunteers.

derossi

gbee wrote: »

I'm afraid I can't accept as it is in error in a number of facts.

Fact No1 is the majority of the Fire Service is manned by volunteers who leave their job, their shopping their TV watching and race to the scene of the incident to meet up with the appliances.

Fulltime paid employees are in the larger urban centres and they are kept very busy indeed, the majority of the work done by the fire service is actually extricating people from vehicle collisions.

As a side note, the cost it the reason there is so much road safety campaigns as the full cost of the various services to attend a multi car pile up runs into the hundred of thousands and many over one million euro per incident annually.

Lord Mount Charles only praised the fire service as he handed over one million euro them for their attendance at his castle home.

Should we be paying these charges, IMO NO! But I do take exception to the quoted post.

The Majority of those men that rescue you or yours on land or at sea [SAR Helis exempted] are volunteers.

Felt I had to reply to clear a few things up.
As a retained member of the brigade i can tell you we are certainly not volunteers but get paid a rate for each call out. Depending in what brigade you are in varies in the amount of calls per year.

There are truely volunteer brigades around but only a handful and most would not be recognised by the local councils.

The civil defence can also help out in the event of major incidents but that is at the whim of the chief in each county.

Brigade charges for each county vary, a reflection on how each county run the service and the fact there is not a national organisation as such.

The important point is the recipient of the service pays for the call and not the person who rings it in. I have never seen someone pay for a call they rang in who didnt recieve the service but have heard of a friend of a friend of a friend who did. It's wrong you wont.

Look up your county website to see the charges. The information is there for all to see. Most counties only charge a small amount for chimney fires and house fires but it does vary.

If you are in a car accident you will likely receive a large bill as the theory is the insurance will pay for it. I can tell you now and i know this from info i heard from someone i my station, if the arrive at an accident and do no work but you still get billed, it was said to me if it went to court it would never stand so dont be afraid to stand your ground.

Each county will have concessions for o.a.p. and people with hardship but the main point is go to the station and talk to them. You will find they will be accomadating.

Lastly in my county there is a box the officer ticks if we go to a call and it turns out for eg somone rang in saying they see a fire in the distance. We turn up and cant see it or a guy is burning a bit os scrub, the box is 'with good intent' and no charges are ever made.

Sorry for the long winded post but it is an important subject and we regulary come accross incidents where old people fail to ring in because they think they cant afford it and sometimes try to put it out themselves. Sometimes it turns out to be fatal, very sad.

Your local council sets your charges, if your not happy with the set charges or not happy with a bill, go speak to your local councillor. You did vote them in!

WoollyRedHat

bonzodog2 wrote: »

This isn't the time for strawman arguments.

Hayters gonna hayt

ads1980

If you call them for a chimney fire tell the person in charge your on the dole , you won't be charged for the call out , he will get u to sign a form sorted then ,

Tayla

Bally8 wrote: »

No you dont. You pay the A&E charge if you dont have a medical card but you dont have to pay for the ambulance

As others have said you do get charged if it's a road traffic accident, I got sent out a bill and a big form to fill in with details about if I was claiming for the accident (it wasn't my fault) they said they would be happy to wait for settlement of the bill in the event of me claiming (I didn't) and I didn't pay the bill in the end or even fill out the form so I don't know who paid it but I presume they probably found out from the guards who caused the accident and billed her directly instead.

LyndaMcL wrote: »

There is an ambulance charge. My sister was charged like 200 euro for needing an ambulance.

They sent me 2 bills, one for myself and one for my son...who was in the same ambulance as me!! In fact I was only in the ambulance because I was going in with my son who wasn't even 1 at the time to get checked over and I didn't even ask to have any medical attention myself but the guy in the ambulance insisted that he take a note of all my injuries.

looksee wrote: »

Paying for a fire brigade callout is to stop needless calls. It shouldn't be necessary to call out for a chimney fire.

Exactly, I think €350 is pretty reasonable for a chimney fire, the fire brigade have enough to be doing and they should only be used in the event of real emergencies.

charlemont

mikemac wrote: »

Our estate has wasteground surrounding it and there have been three cars burned out by the local scum joyriders in recent months.

Surely they charge the property owner, not the person who reported it, right?
Or I'll be thinking twice before I call 999 and give my name on a recorded line

I reported a car on fire before via 999 to the Fire service but I just mumbled when they wanted my name, Must say they were on the scene very quick though.