fire bans

[food4u]

Who does the actual enforcing of a fire ban in a rural municipality? Our RM does not have a bylaw enforcement officer, so does it fall to the councilor or does it get passed on to the RCMP???

[fjlip]

Report your neighbor I guess...

[hobbyfrmr]

I am a volunteer fireman. Once a year we go over the fees for a call out. I dont know about enforcement.
If your fire gets away from you, and the fire departments are called out, you pay a flat fee, then $20.00/hour for every fireman (woman) who attends. If you disagree and withold payment, it goes onto your property taxes.
I suggest calling in your controlled burn so emergency dispatch knows your burning and exactly where. If it gets away you call 911, the directions to your fire are already in the system, faster response time.
Another reason to phone in is, people drive by and call it in, emergency dispatch is unaware of your actvity and send out fire dept. Another scenario is clever trickster neighbors phone it in.
Whatever the circumstance, you will pay a minimim flat rate for a call out even if its a false alarm.

[sumdumguy]

Even though we followed the procedure and called control burn 310-5000, we got a big fat bill. What a pile of crap! I can't so much as light a moldy bale and the RM is only too happy to come flying out because some overzealous passerby has nothing better to do. Get real! I can burn my firepit in and village, town and my neighbour in Regina has a backyard fire every weekend. Think we have seen the fire trucks pull up? Never! If I need the fire department and call, that's one thing, but I suspect that legally, the RM can't collect if some one else calls of their own volition. Then he should get the bill.

[farmaholic]

SDG, if contfolled burn 310-5000 has record of your call, I would think the people who sent the bill wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Do they?

[farmaholic]

SDG, if contfolled burn 310-5000 has record of your call, I would think the people who sent the bill wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Do they?

[fjlip]

If you called it in tell RM to shove their bill. They must NOT have checked to see if controlled burn. Their nickel.

[sumdumguy]

We paid it. They said we had to notify them.

[sumdumguy]

Are all RM's aware that they have to check first before getting all "fired" up?

[Oliver88]

SDG should not have had to pay that bill the way I understand it.

If you had a permit to burn....you are covered.

[oneoff]

And now for "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey always said.

Was it your "insurance" that really paid for the response of a volunteer fire department?

Or was it general tax dollars that funds the fire department budget; and you were just paying a special additional tax for a misfortune; or an unwarranted call from someone objecting to smoke; or a little getting even or possibly the error of not notifying the burn line of a "controlled" burn or maybe not even cancelling that notification when the fire was totally out.

What I have noticed is that it is always the ratepayers who pay all the costs in any event; and that those taxpayers are most satisfied to pay all the bills once through their taxes.

Trying to collect the equivalent of penalties on top of misfortune and even preventable mistakes; does not garner any good will or thankyou's or even voluntary donations and future cooperation with a fire department or those forcing the generation of bills.

What is needed is a change of attitude from your RM decision makers. Oh what a divisive thought; but thats part of the rest of the story.

If arson is involved or a danger to public safety; then be looking a lot deeper than trying to collect another cheque. And remember that fire department calls involve just about any imaginable situation. Thankyou volunteer fire departments; and particularly those areas that operate with the attitude when you need help with the services you have already invested tax dollars in equipment,facilities, training and much of their fire department "wish list"....they are there when needed.

And I doubt that any call or notification to a "controlled burn" line absolves anyone of the consequences of a fire that has been set. A fire on your property that may well spread to a neighbor; which is pretty problematic for everyone; particularly for the owner of the property that may be determined was the origin of the initial fire.

[farmaholic]

And I doubt.......

And I doubt anyone here is saying they shouldn't be responsible for purposely started fires on their property, contained or otherwise.

[sumdumguy]

In our entire farming careers, we kept isolation strips especially around our yards and around fields. Maybe from years of being registered seed growers, we just learned to cultivate along our ditches, fields and yards. As for run-away fires, by the time the fire department rounded up their volunteers, neighbours with cultivators and water trucks had the fires extinguished. The fire trucks were usually not ready to go, not full of water and 11/2 hours away, but they sent the bill anyway, just for good measure.

[oneoff]

What category does one place SaskPower overload fuses that trip and act as they were designed; or crossed 3 phase wires; lightning and fires originating from even accidents; rodent damage and vandalism etc. etc.

If there is a bill coming; you know where it will end up with the demand to be paid or it will be added to taxes of the landowner.

And remember that your volntary fire insurance coverage will leave you still owing up to hundreds of thousands if some departments shiny new truck happens to get stuck and burn.

It has all happened before and will happen again.