Fire brigade charges at crash

yop

Guys
Was in a smash there 6 weeks back. Got a bill in the post from the Fire Service for 641.27 euro.
To say I was shocked would have been an understatement.

I then got calls from the other 2 cars in the crash and they got the same!

So has anyone any experiences in this?

The fire station was 4 miles from the crash. No work BAR sweeping the debris off the road, which they left in a pile on the side of the road and then scattered some sand on the road.
Probably there MAX 30 mins.

So how the hell can they justify this? :mad:

colm_mcm

insurance company of the car that was at fault covers it AFAIK

BostonB

Heard of this before. Seems very expensive. But I guess if you consider a tradesman would be 80 or more and thats just one guy....

mike65

Standard operation procedcure, if you call the cops the firebrigade and possibly an ambulance (depending) will turn up, if they do regardless of the work or lack of they will charge for it and you pay!

Unless you really need to dial 999 don't.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pricewatch/2009/05/20/dont-pay-the-fireman/

Tipsy Mac

BostonB wrote: »

Heard of this before. Seems very expensive. But I guess if you consider a tradesman would be 80 or more and thats just one guy....

Yes he's not getting his wages from your taxes though . Where will all the charges end though, next there will be a €10 charge for calling in a crime.

As was said your insurance company will cover it.

Our man in Havana

I am amazed that these charges are not challenged in the courts.

As said the next thing will be the Gardaí sending you a bill for catching the thieves that robbed your house.

colm_mcm

Bond-007 wrote: »

As said the next thing will be the Gardaí sending you a bill for catching the thieves that robbed your house.

Well, if they actually caught them.....

ciarsd

Have your 'incident' in Dublin, or even Cork...they don't charge... it's funded by the local authorities/councils!

yop

ciarsd wrote: »

Have your 'incident' in Dublin, or even Cork...they don't charge... it's funded by the local authorities/councils!

Go way!!! thats mental.

So they got 1923.81 euro for 30 mins work!

Mena

This was on the radio a week or three ago. It seems that people who challenge the cost get it quashed.

Worth a try. I'd certainly not pay it, unless I could claim the exact same amount back on my tax at the end of the year.

Hagar

You should have gotten written quotes from two or three other fire brigades before letting them do the job. That's what I did when my house was on fire, saved myself a bundle.

yop

Hagar wrote: »

You should have gotten written quotes from two or three other fire brigades before letting them do the job. That's what I did when my house was on fire, saved myself a bundle.

LOL, I tried but there seems to be a bit of price fixing. So in the end I found it was like fighting fire with fire and had to let them take the job

PS It was the Garda who called them, maybe they will pay the bill!

jmck87

Dont pay.

Write a letter asking for evidence of your consent to contract. If you persist with not acknowledging your contractual consent they will drop the matter.

Busta Hyman

m8 just forward it in as part of your claim the guy who hit you deserves to have his preimium whacked up. except if it was you that hit them then OMG thats fekkin outreageous you shouldent put up with that ring 999 and tell them you refuse to pay it as you didnt call them and there was not contract entered into.

yop

I was the party at fault. So I have to pay out on the lot.

I think I can put it through the insurance but it still sounds ridiculous.

Run_to_da_hills

Hagar wrote: »

You should have gotten written quotes from two or three other fire brigades before letting them do the job. That's what I did when my house was on fire, saved myself a bundle.

I wouldn't bother calling them and would have attempted to put the fire out myself and saved a fortune. Fire blankets and extinguishers were on special recently at Lidls to cater for the DIY fireman.

Anan1

jmck87 wrote: »

Dont pay.

Write a letter asking for evidence of your consent to contract. If you persist with not acknowledging your contractual consent they will drop the matter.

I'm sure you'd get great karma out of that.

Old_-_School

You should only ring 999 for absolute emergencies. In an accident where there are no life-threatening injuries I just ring the local Garda station, that way no ambulance or fire brigade will get called.

yop

Old_-_School wrote: »

You should only ring 999 for absolute emergencies. In an accident where there are no life-threatening injuries I just ring the local Garda station, that way no ambulance or fire brigade will get called.

And
a) If you dont have the local number
b) You are not a medical expert so can't diagnose if the other person(s) are injured or not
c) The road is blocked

What do you do then?

Busta Hyman

Old_-_School wrote: »

You should only ring 999 for absolute emergencies. In an accident where there are no life-threatening injuries I just ring the local Garda station, that way no ambulance or fire brigade will get called.

did you not read the posts he didnt ring them . the gards attending the crash did. the local station is on a commission basis

Anan1

yop wrote: »

And
a) If you dont have the local number
b) You are not a medical expert so can't diagnose if the other person(s) are injured or not
c) The road is blocked

What do you do then?

I'd just call 999, as I presume you did. Fire brigade charges are covered by your insurance, they're part of the cost of the accident.

Hagar

112 lads, get with the program.

Heroditas

yop wrote: »

And
a) If you dont have the local number
b) You are not a medical expert so can't diagnose if the other person(s) are injured or not
c) The road is blocked

What do you do then?

11890

Sleipnir

Hagar wrote: »

112 lads, get with the program.

Yeah '1' and '9'; the two most common numbers to get an outside line in companies. Messes up my dial plan.....GRRRRRRR...

aoibhebree

Busta Hyman wrote: »

did you not read the posts he didnt ring them . the gards attending the crash did.

I'm not sure about this, but as far as I know, if you call 999 for a traffic accident, a fire brigade is automatically sent out. This is because they presume that if you're calling 999 it's an emergency and there's a fair chance the fire brigade will be needed to cut people out of cars. So I doubt it was the guards attending the crash who called them.

If you don't know the number of the local Garda station, ring 11811.

Anan1

Sleipnir wrote: »

Yeah '1' and '9'; the two most common numbers to get an outside line in companies. Messes up my dial plan.....GRRRRRRR...

You crash cars while sitting at your desk?

Our man in Havana

Who is going to fap arround at the sence of an accident calling 11890 looking for a Garda Station for an area that they may not know?
112 will connect you to the correct station quickly.

Micky Dolenz

was in a crash a couple of years ago. Got bill for €600 (I made the call), sent it to my solicitor who sent it to the person at fault. Their insurance paid for it, as in, they sent me a cheque to cover the cost.

aoibhebree

Bond-007 wrote: »

Who is going to fap arround at the sence of an accident calling 11890 looking for a Garda Station for an area that they may not know?
112 will connect you to the correct station quickly.

If it wasn't a serious accident with injuries, I'd rather "fap around" for a few minutes than be stuck with that kind of a bill!

Alun

Hagar wrote: »

112 lads, get with the program.

No, you're even more out of date ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU

Sleipnir

Anan1 wrote: »

You crash cars while sitting at your desk?

Traffic light operator.

Naw, but when doing up a dial plan, you need to take into account things like "what people dial when in a panic" e.g. you have '1' for an outside line so people need to dial 1112 to get emergency or if you have '9' they need to dial 9999.
In a panic, some people might pick up a phone and dial 112, get an outside dial tone, 2 digits and of course that doesn't go to Emergency!

Anan1

Sleipnir wrote: »

Traffic light operator.

Naw, but when doing up a dial plan, you need to take into account things like "what people dial when in a panic" e.g. you have '1' for an outside line so people need to dial 1112 to get emergency or if you have '9' they need to dial 9999.
In a panic, some people might pick up a phone and dial 112, get an outside dial tone, 2 digits and of course that doesn't go to Emergency!

Fair point. Mind you, it'd probably be easier to set up switchboards to accept 112/999 rather than changing the number? In fact, i'm surprised it hasn't already been done.

Sleipnir

Get's worse for me in our company as we have extensions that begin with 9, in fact we have a 999x range!

Our man in Havana

aoibhebree wrote: »

If it wasn't a serious accident with injuries, I'd rather "fap around" for a few minutes than be stuck with that kind of a bill!

It is up to the Gardaí whether to send the fire service or not. They ask the caller if there are any injuries. If not they don't send them.

Also these charges are likely to be illegal, as said if you challenge them they seem to back down awful quick.

evogirl

i crashed my car two years ago, no one else involved. passers by called 999 and the fire bridgade were first on the scene. i got a bill from them a few weeks later for over 1100 :eek: but because i was on a social welfare payment at the time it was reduced to 200...

Lord Derpington

You should of called 0118 999 881 999 119 725... 3

JimmyCrackCorn!

mike65 wrote: »

Standard operation procedcure, if you call the cops the firebrigade and possibly an ambulance (depending) will turn up, if they do regardless of the work or lack of they will charge for it and you pay!

Unless you really need to dial 999 don't.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pricewatch/2009/05/20/dont-pay-the-fireman/

Sounds justified to me. Someone called them they weren't needed i dont see why the taxpayer should pay.

I'm sure if they were needed you wouldn't worry about the 600 euro.

LimaBravo

Busta Hyman wrote: »

ring 999 and tell them you refuse to pay it as you didnt call them and there was not contract entered into.

Are you having a laugh?

999 is an emergency line for EMERGENCIES and not a customer complaints line for the fire service. The 999 controllers are not the ones who send you a bill and neither are the firefighters who respond to a call either for that matter.

Its the county councils who run the fire services that send the bills and each county differs as each have control of their own fire service. Every firefighter in the country is totally against fire brigade charges would be most supportive of any efforts not to pay the bill. FACT

yop

Anan1 wrote: »

I'd just call 999, as I presume you did. Fire brigade charges are covered by your insurance, they're part of the cost of the accident.

Aye someone at the crash called the Guards, they then called the fire brigade.

Darragh29

Hagar wrote: »

You should have gotten written quotes from two or three other fire brigades before letting them do the job. That's what I did when my house was on fire, saved myself a bundle.

Excellent! lol!

jmck87

Anan1 wrote: »

I'm sure you'd get great karma out of that.

:rolleyes:

Its the principle...would you pay a bill if it was 10,000 euro? Doubt it...dont gimme that karma stuff...my taxes already contribute towards the fire brigades...county councils are chancing their arm by billing people for incidents.

What they are doing is unjust. You can not contract with entities without consent.

But sure pay away if you need the karma points.

Smokey Bear

Liamo Bravo
Not so sure about that.

In Dublin charges are being looked at due budget cuts to Fire Brigade.
Already 25 postions will be lost .So Fire fighter in Dublin would like to see charges introduced so as not to endager lives and maintain Front line numbers.This is a cut in front line operational numbers.
Not an ideal way of recouping costs I agree but no other way at getting required funds to fund required resources that public expect.
Charges would be for recoverable amounts from insurance companys for the likes of RTA car fires etc. (not for demostic fires)these costs are already covered in insurance priemum.
The reason they are being looked at is because HSE owe €€€millions to DFB for provision of emergency ambulance service in Dublin.
The reason at times Fire brigade attend RTA scenes is to provide scene protection for other emergency service who may be in attandance its a H&S requirment.
There is no standard Pre determined attadance for RTA's in Ireland each of the 36 odd brigades have different policies and charges.

Smokey Bear

Carawaystick

Smokey Bear wrote: »

The reason at times Fire brigade attend RTA scenes is to provide scene protection for other emergency service who may be in attandance its a H&S requirment.

There is no standard Pre determined attadance for RTA's in Ireland each of the 36 odd brigades have different policies and charges.

These 2 statements contradict each other. If it's a Health and safety requirement that requirement would be countrywide.

Smokey Bear

You would think so.That why I used "at times"
But Logic and the Irish Fire Service would not be something I would use in the same sentence.
Thats the reason we need a national service ,national standards one way of doing thing.
It would save millions and possible do away with charges

Smokey Bear