Indiana banned police response fees in 2008, but the law did not include provisions for fire departments.Īngela and Ralph Piper certainly weren't expecting a bill when their 2-and-a-half-year-old dream house in Bryan, Texas, burst into flames over the summer after being hit by lightning. Seven other states, including Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, have some sort of law banning accident fees. "You don't want to be thinking can you afford it when your house is on fire," he said.įlorida became the most recent state last year to ban such fees for emergency services.
#Fallen leaf fire department crack
Zarich said the Insurance Institution of Indiana would like to see the government crack down on ESBC, but has also been lobbying for an eradication of this practice in general. "I don't care what the fire marshal says at all," Blackford said.
ESBC's Web site doesn't list specific rates, but advertises it's own rate policy based on charges for every 15 minutes a fire department's equipment and personnel are on scene, with the fees taking an emergency responder's rank into consideration.ĮSBC spokesman Rob Blackford confirmed to that his company ignores the state recommendation, saying the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA, allows fire departments to charge what they see fit in exchange for mitigating the environmental impact of an accident or fire. Indiana's state fire marshal lists appropriate service charges as up to $250 for a vehicle response and up to $150 for each hour of assistance, but Zarich said ESBC's estimates are almost always higher. In the last 18 months, the institute's member companies have reporting seeing their average fire service charges go from $300 to $400 to between $2,000 and $5,000, Zarich said. Most municipalities and fire districts across the country that have turned to these types of service charges contract with billing companies who then take a cut of the collections.īut Emergency Services Billing Corporation, Zarich charged, has been grossly inflating charges on behalf of their clients. Zarich said his organization is familiar with the billing company that sent out the Fairchilds' bill. Insurance Companies Fight Back Against Third-Party Vendors "But it's the homeowner that's responsible once coverage runs out." "Part of the sales tactic when municipalities consider this is, 'Hey, don't worry, it's going to go to insurance,'" Jon Zarich, director of government affairs for the Insurance Institute of Indiana, told. The Fairchilds, of New Castle, Ind., were just one of a growing number of fire and accident victims across the country who are being billed for fire department services once funded solely through taxpayer money.Īlready banned in several states, the practice of charging to respond to house fires and car accidents - dubbed a "crash tax" or an "accident tax" - has horrified victims and earned the ire of insurance lobbyists who say their member companies are being targeted to make up for budget shortfalls. I said, 'It's got to be a mistake.'"īut it wasn't a mistake. "I felt my body turn cold and I just broke out into a sweat," Fairchild told. 4, 2010— - It came in the mail less than a month after Darline Fairchild watched her family's home go up in flames - a bill for the nearly $28,000 it cost the fire department to extinguish the blaze.
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