Being charged for the fire brigade to come out?!

Gmol

PCPhoto wrote: »

Yes you do !!

had an RTA (Road Traffic Accident) a few years ago - single vehicle collision (tyre blew on me and I crashed car) .... an ambulance was transporting a patient from Dublin to Cork at the time, they took me in the ambulance and several weeks/months later a bill arrived for the ambulance.

I called them up and told them I was not the only person in the ambulance so they halved the bill....and I paid. (cant remember the amount)

Should have shopped arround

ejmaztec

Gophur wrote: »

Chimley? :D:D

Is the OP in pre-school?

He was until he burned it down.:(

Pandora2

Having worked in an area that touched on this, ime charges, if any, vary from County to County, one incident of a tenant in a house of bedsits calling in a smell of gas (rural), they attended with his name & address as the complainant and he got the bill from the County Council. They were not interested in who owned the property but who they had the address for!! He paid €250!! Never heard of the ambulance charge...surely if you came on someone injured or a burning bulding you should not have to weigh up where you are and if you can afford the charges before getting appropriate help!! There are some who would just keep going:eek:

If your County are not doing this already they will be doing it after the next budget...each Council is given their budget for the year and must make it work, a monkey can tell they will be getting Sweet Feck all this year and they will root around in the other Council's to see what other revenue raising measures they use and hey presto we will all pay for ambulances and fire engines.

These decisions will be made by Councillor's voting locally and if you are against such charges..bend their ear!!!! As money gets tighter, fires will go unreported/the ill will be neglected for fear of charges...might solve the
A&E Crises but it is an indication of how Ireland is going to be a very different place to live into the future!! Thin end of the wedge:rolleyes:

phasers

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

Wrong.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/emergency_health_services/ambulance_and_transport_services.html#l62fd2

Mr. Presentable

That's why you have insurance

Esoteric_

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

phasers

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

That's why you have insurance

Except a lot of people don't, and even if you do claiming for something small like this would affect your no claims bonus so it's not really worth it.

Mike 1972

alchemist33 wrote: »

I believe that if you call them for somebody else's house, you get charged.

I believe its a tad irresponsible to spread roumers like this unless/until one knows what theyre actually talking about.

pickarooney

I remember one time part of our house went on fire and my mother rang the fire brigade in the closest town. They couldn't come because it was over the county line and so we had to ring another station and wait for them to come, then charge us, whereas the other county didn't have this charge.

Zuppy

Every county council is different in regards to charges. BUT the common practice is the beneficial user of the service pays.

If you ring for your neighbours house on fire then the bill (if there is one, depending on the service) goes to your neighbour.

PLEASE : ring the 999 Fire service. The Gardai have enough to do and the fire service require different information and give different advice depending on the nature of the call.

Zuppy

pickarooney wrote: »

I remember one time part of our house went on fire and my mother rang the fire brigade in the closest town. They couldn't come because it was over the county line and so we had to ring another station and wait for them to come, then charge us, whereas the other county didn't have this charge.

And you no longer ring the stations. 999 and they will connect you to the fire control for the province. Hence if you ring from a mobile they will ask where you are and what county etc. Cross county agreements are in place so the nearest station that is available will respond no matter what county they and you are in.

Mr. Presentable

phasers wrote: »

Except a lot of people don't, and even if you do claiming for something small like this would affect your no claims bonus so it's not really worth it.

It's only small if they put the fire out and the house doesn't burn down. If it's only small why call? Surely almost all householders have insurance.

Wicklowrider

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.

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.....

Supraman

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.

Well An Post charge the sender of the letter/packet isnt that enough. The fire brigade don't charge who started the fire lol.

wild_cat

Its to stop bogus calls so they caller is charged.
I think their line is that "your insurance should cover it".

Our neighbour was burning rubbish.... :rolleyes: During a dry time a few years ago. His whole acre went up.. Other neighbour called the gaurds first and got them to call the fire brigade to avoid having to pay the charge for something that wasn't even on his land.

Oink

LighterGuy wrote: »

we've got water taxes (and the areas that already dont are going to)
we've got road taxes.
we've got VAT.
... i could go on. we've practually got tax on everything.

I'm all in favour of a new tax on idiots. It would be based on a new unit of measurement called a tWat.

=>If you use 250 tWats/h, for example by not keeping your fireplace clean, or starting a fire in the dry season, you get charged accordingly when DFB is called.

=>If you crash you car after a DUI, that's another 200 tWats/h for the ambulance. You would of course get credited with 3000 tWats if you manage to remove yourself from the gene pool during the incident.

That would encourage less tWatage.

What do you think?

Mike 1972

Oink wrote: »

You would of course get credited with 3000 tWats if you manage to remove yourself from the gene pool during the incident.

Who would recieve the units since removal from the gene pool would mean death for oneself and no offspring ?

Seachmall

Oink wrote: »

What do you think?

I think we'll be out of the recession in no time!

Lemsiper

The only way to do it is when you have call out the fire brigade is to give your neighbours details, even if it's your fire.

Dravokivich

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

There are only 2 exceptions to a charge for the Ambulance that I've heard of:

1) Medical Card
2) Pregnant Women

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.