Fire Chief Seems Intent on Making Enemies Out of Visitors to the City.
THE STRATMOOR HILLS FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has found a way to squeeze money out of visitors to the city legally without performing any fire or rescue services. Colorado has a law on the books that permits fire districts to:
Fix and from time to time increase or decrease fees and charges as follows, and the board may pledge such revenue for the payment of any indebtedness of the district: (I) For ambulance or emergency medical services and extrication, rescue, or safety services provided in furtherance of ambulance or emergency medical services. "Extrication, rescue, or safety services" includes but is not limited to any: A) Services provided prior to the arrival of an ambulance; (B) Rescue or extrication of trapped or injured parties at the scene of a motor vehicle accident; and (C) Lane safety or blocking provided by district equipment.
Stratmoor Hills takes this obligation to provide lane safety very seriously and shows up on fender-benders even though nobody needs or requests any fire or rescue assistance. KOAA-TV continues:
Tony Parsons shows off the bumps and minor scratches on his bumper to describe how minor his May 4th fender-bender really was.
Near 1-25 and S. Academy three cars ended up pulled over on the shoulder, out of traffic, after the third car hit the second which hit the first. They called 9-1-1 to get a police report to give to their insurance companies but State Patrol, an ambulance and a Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District fire engine showed up.
A couple weeks later, Parsons and the other two drivers got a $700 dollar bill from the Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District for responding to the accident even though none of the drivers asked for or needed their help.
"It's unfair and unjust," says Tony Parsons."I am being faced with a $700 dollar bill and I can't fathom why. They provided no service, it was not requested but for some reason you're allowed to bill me hundreds of dollars."
The Stratmoor Hills billing machine dropped paper on the other two drivers also for a total of $2,100 for a few minutes of "lane safety" for cars parked on the shoulder of the road. When Parsons called the FD to complain, he was told that if the bill wasn't paid, then it would be turned over to a collection agency.
KOAA-TV followed up on the story and filed this video report HERE.
Note that the fire chief's advice to the reporter was to avoid having accidents in Stratmoor Hills. As noted in the video, the tv station contacted neighboring fire districts and none of them practice this form of legalized extortion, billing only for major extrications or medical care, or in some cases not at all. Stratmoor Hills rakes in about $42,000 annually from this trick billing only non-residents.
Firegeezer notes: It used to be that the towing companies kept a fire/police scanner going so they could hear the calls and then dash out to be the first on the scene for the tow job. Now we have an about-face where the fire stations keep their scanners tuned in to the tow truck frequencies to that they can dash out for the job.
Fire Chief Ian Bruzenak defends the extortionary policy. (KOAA-TV image)
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Also on FireGeezer…
- How to Meet Your Local Firefighters – April 4, 2012
